Winks Blog

60 Killed in Nationwide Attacks

Good Morning,

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A pair of mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field while young men were playing a game in a Shiite district of Baghdad on Wednesday as more than 60 people were killed in attacks nationwide.

The mortar rounds struck the soccer field in Sadr City as an afternoon game was in progress between young men from the sprawling slum that is home to about 2.5 million people, police Capt. Mohammed Ismail said. At least eight people were killed and 20 wounded, including players and bystanders, he said.

Dozens of people have been killed in recent days in mortar attacks by rival Sunni and Shiite groups on residential areas in Baghdad.

Two mortar rounds also struck an area in northern Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least one person, police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said.

Authorities had originally called Tuesday's attack on a coffee shop in another Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad a mortar attack, but Lt. Ali Muhssin said Wednesday that it was a suicide bombing. He also raised the death toll in that attack from 14 to 21, with another 25 wounded.

South of the capital, a bomb planted in a minivan exploded in an open-air market in Mahmoudiyah, killing at least six people and wounding 28, policeman Haider Satar said.

Another 16 people were killed in a string of shootings and bombings in Diyala province north of the capital, while a car bomb in western Baghdad killed three people and wounded three, Lt. Mutaz Salaheddin said.

U.S. forces said they killed 10 suspected insurgents and rescued a kidnapped Iraqi policeman early Wednesday in a raid near Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 11:09 AM