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30+ Killed

Good Morning,

BAGHDAD (AP) — At least 30 people were killed Thursday in attacks in Iraq, including 11 in an assault on a new Sunni-Arab television station in Baghdad, while authorities found the mutilated bodies of more likely victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said that since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan about two weeks ago, attacks have been up 15% in Baghdad.

Ramadan "historically has been a period of increased violence," he said. "We assume it will still get worse before it gets better — we expect violence to continue to increase over the next two weeks until the end of Ramadan."

The raid on the southeastern Baghdad offices of Iraq's Shaabiya satellite station came around 7 a.m. local time, police Maj. Mahir Hamad said.

An unknown number of gunmen pulled up at the station in seven cars, stormed quickly into the offices and opened fire, then fled, station executive director Hassan Kamil told Associated Press Television News.

Kamil said 11 people had been killed, including technicians, two guards and the head of the station's board of directors.

"A group of armed men in seven cars stormed into the building and killed a group of our colleagues, including the head of the board of directors Abdel-Raheem Nasrallah," he said.

The station moved into the building in July and has not yet gone on the air, Kamil said.

The motivation behind the attack was not immediately clear, but it was the second attack on a television station in the capital in as many weeks.

On Oct. 1, a parked car bomb blew up outside the local al-Rafidain TV station. The blast killed two pedestrians and wounded five station employees, while blowing out windows of the building and causing other damage to the offices.

Meanwhile, police said the family of a 29-year-old Kurdish radio reporter who was abducted a week ago had identified his body in the Baghdad morgue.

Azad Mohammed Hussein was kidnapped in northeastern Baghdad by unidentified gunmen while on his way to Dar al-Salam radio headquarters in the capital's Shaab neighborhood. His body was turned into the morgue Tuesday and identified by his family on Wednesday, police Capt. Ali al-Obaidi said.

Another four people were killed and eight wounded when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle ran into a police patrol, police Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said. Two policemen were among the dead in the attack in eastern Baghdad.

Elsewhere in the city, a synchronized bomb attack killed five and wounded 11 others, police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said.

First a car bomb parked in central Baghdad's Qurtaba Square exploded, followed shortly afterward by second device planted on the roadside nearby, Majid said. One policeman was among the dead.

Insurgents are making increasing use of the tactic of detonating one bomb to draw attention to a spot, then a second to cause high casualties among onlookers and rescue workers.

In a similar attack, a bomb exploded at 7 a.m. local time near a Shiite mosque in the Qahira neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad. Two minutes later another bomb exploded nearby, wounding four people who had gathered at the place of the first explosion, police 1st Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said.

In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb attack in a residential district killed a woman and wounded six other people, police Capt. Laith Mohammed said.

In Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, nine people were killed in four separate attacks, including the director of the provincial department for children's affairs who was shot dead by unidentified gunman with his son in their home, the provincial police said.

In Suwayrah, 25 miles down river from Baghdad, authorities fished four bodies out of the Tigris that showed signs of torture.

Two of the victims had their throats cut and two others had been shot, said Hadi al-Attan, an official with the Kut morgue where the bodies were taken. All were blindfolded and had their hands and legs bound, he said.

Eleven more bodies were found in the same area later, all with hands and legs bound, blindfolded and showing signs of torture, police Lt. Ali Abbas Abid said.

According to new figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry, more than 2,660 Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad in September_ 400 more than the month before despite an intensified U.S.-Iraqi sweep aimed at reining in violence.

The numbers indicate how tough the vital battle to secure Baghdad has proven amid a wave of bloodshed this year, not only from Sunni Arab insurgents but also from Shiite and Sunni death squads who kidnap and kill members of the opposing sect.

In Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, authorities found the severed head of a kidnap victim dumped at the side of a street in a black sack.

The victim was identified as a local man who had been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from outside his home on Tuesday, police Lt. Mohammed Hassan said.

Outside Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, an insurgent was killed when the roadside bomb he was planting detonated, police Capt. Ahmed Mijawal said.

Elsewhere, in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, gunmen broke into the city's Hamza police station, killing one policeman and freeing 10 prisoners who were being held on various criminal charges, police Lt. Raid Jabir said.

The raid came at 8:30 p.m. local time Wednesday, Jabir said.

posted by Wink @ 11:01 AM