Winks Blog

15 Iraqi Police Killed, 23 Bodies Found, 5 Others Killed Around Iraq

Good Morning,

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed 15 policemen working as instructors at the local police academy and two translators in the southern city of Basra, police said. The men were forced off a bus on the city's outskirts Sunday afternoon and their bodies were found hours later dumped in several locations, police said.

Basra is about 80 percent Shiite, Iraq's majority sect that makes up the bulk of the police and security forces nationwide, especially in the predominantly Shiite south. Most of the murdered policemen were believed to have been Shiite.

Gunmen also attacked an Iraqi government convoy and wounded a bodyguard of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, but the leader was not in the procession, officials said Sunday as violence rose in Baghdad after a post-Ramadan lull.

A mortar attack elsewhere in the capital killed four Iraqis and wounded four, while other gun assaults left two policemen and a civilian dead and two officers wounded. A kidnapped state television host and his driver also were found slain.

North of Baghdad, gunmen ambushed a convoy of Sunni pilgrims bound for Islam's holy city of Mecca and killed at least one person, with attacks across Iraq causing a total of at least 15 deaths. The bodies of 23 people also were found, most believed to be the victims of sectarian reprisal killings.


Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 10:18 AM