Winks Blog

82 Killed Or Found Dead Today, + 100 - 150 People Kidnapped From Education Ministry Office

Good morning,


At least 82 people were killed or found dead in murders, bombings and clashes nationwide.

In Tuesday's worst violence, 21 people were killed and 25 injured in a car bombing targeting traffic along a highway linking downtown with the Shiite slum of Sadr City, police Lt. Ali Muhssin said.

Mohammed Ali, a 30-year-old clothes merchant, had closed his shop early and was heading home when the bomb blast threw him from his motorcycle.

"I could see people on fire. We tried to rescue some women from a minibus, but they died in our arms," Ali said.

In other violence Tuesday, police and medical workers said at least 31 Iraqis were killed in overnight clashes in the western city of Ramadi, where U.S. ground troops and warplanes have conducted a series of operations over recent days targeting Sunni insurgents. U.S. forces had no immediate comment

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen dressed as police commandos kidnapped scores of staff and visitors in a lightning raid on an education ministry office Tuesday in one of the biggest mass abductions since the start of the U.S. occupation. Five senior police officers _ including the neighborhood police chief _ were arrested, the government said.

Alaa Makki, head of parliament's education committee, interrupted the legislative session Tuesday morning to say that between 100 and 150 people, both Shiites and Sunnis, had been abducted in the 9:30 a.m. raid at the ministry offices, calling the kidnapping a "national catastrophe."

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 11:28 AM