Senator John McCain’s hallucinatory statements on Tuesday and Wednesday that it was safe to stroll around Baghdad these days failed to mention that many of these strolls were directly into the other side. In pieces.
MOSUL – Police said they found 25 bodies in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday. Police said they believed the high number of killings was triggered by tensions linked to sectarian violence in nearby Tal Afar, where 155 people were killed this week in attacks.
HILLA – Gunmen killed two policemen in a drive-by shooting and wounded another in a village near the city of Hilla, police said. Hilla is 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad.
BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed one American soldier and wounded another in southern Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said.
DIWANIYA – Gunmen shot dead a man in front of his shop in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, on Thursday, police said.
BAGHDAD – Iraqi and U.S. forces captured a man believed to be involved in bringing explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) into Iraq, the U.S. military said. The EFPs are a particularly lethal form of roadside bomb.
KHALIS – At least three suicide car bombers launched almost simultaneous attacks in a mainly Shi’ite town, killing 53 people and wounding 103, police said. The blasts took place in Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad.
BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber killed at least 62 people and wounded 27 in a market in the Shaab district of northern Baghdad, police sources said. Most of the victims were women and children who had been out shopping in the crowded market in the Shi’ite district, a health ministry official said. [More on these two bombings here and here (Juan Cole.)]
This goes on for pages, for this week alone.
BAGHDAD – The bodies of 25 people were found in Baghdad, a police source said.
BAGHDAD – Gunmen opened fire on a crowd in Shabab district in southern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding three, a police source said.
MAHMUDIYA – Gunmen killed an eye doctor as he was leaving work in Mahmudiya, a police source said.
BAGHDAD – A car bomb killed three people and wounded 16 in Jamiaa in western Baghdad, a police source said, adding that the bomb targeted an army patrol.
BAGHDAD – A senior academic at Baghdad’s Mustansiriya university named Rida Qureishi was kidnapped, a police source said.
BAGHDAD – A car bomb killed four policemen and one civilian and wounded nine more police in Jihad in southwest Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Police were checking a suspicious vehicle when it exploded.
MOSUL – U.S. forces killed four armed men who fired on them during a raid in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said. U.S. forces also detained 15 suspected insurgents in that raid and others around Iraq against al Qaeda targets.
BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb in Bayaa district in southern Baghdad killed three people and wounded 20 others, police said.
MAHMUDIYA – A car bomb killed four people and wounded 20 in a parking lot in Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. A local official in the town said eight people were killed and 12 wounded.
MAHMUDIYA – Two mortar bombs landed in a residential district of Mahmudiya, killing two people and wounding seven, police said.
BAGHDAD – Two policemen were killed and six wounded when they approached a car bomb in Amil district in southwestern Baghdad, police said. There was a body in the car.
MOSUL – Police arrested a leader of al Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul, police said.
MOSUL – Gunmen killed Nawaf al-Hadidi, imam of a mosque in Mosul, in a drive-by shooting on Wednesday, police said.
BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded three soldiers in the western Ghazaliya district of Baghdad, a Reuters witness said.
BAGHDAD – Gunmen attacked the motorcade of the head of traffic police, Jaafar al-Khafaji, in northern Baghdad, killing two traffic policemen and wounding two others, police said.
BAGHDAD – Thirteen bodies were found shot in different districts of Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.
BAGHDAD – A car bomb targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint killed a soldier and wounded three others on Wednesday near al-Shurta tunnel in western Baghdad, police said.
KIRKUK – Ali Abid, the deputy to the governor of Kirkuk, escaped a roadside bomb attack on Wednesday in the northern city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. He was unharmed but three of his guards were wounded.
DIWANIYA – Gunmen killed a policeman near his house in the southern city of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
DIWANIYA – The body of a young man was found shot in Diwaniya, police said. He was kidnapped on Wednesday. Gunmen also kidnapped a woman engineer as she left her office in Diwaniya on Wednesday.
BAGHDAD – Gunmen kidnapped Hassan Abdul-Latif, an official of the Iraqi Customs Office in central Baghdad, on Wednesday, police said.
HILLA – Iraqi army forces arrested 14 insurgents and a number of weapons and seized bomb-making materials in and around the city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
FALLUJA – The U.S. military said only one of two truck bombs that attacked Iraqi and U.S. forces in Falluja on Wednesday contained chlorine, contrary to earlier information that both bombs released chlorine gas.
TAL AFAR – Shi’ite gunmen stormed a Sunni district in Tal Afar overnight, killing 50 or more men in apparent reprisal for truck bombings on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said. Major-General Khorshid Saleem, the head of the Third Army Division in Tal Afar, said the death toll was 70, with 30 wounded and 40 kidnapped. The prime minister ordered an inquiry into reports the gunmen included policemen, an official in his office said. [more]
TAL AFAR – The toll from Tuesday’s twin truck bombings in Shi’ite areas of Tal Afar rose to 55 dead and 185 wounded, police and hospital sources said.
FALLUJA – Two suicide bombers in trucks carrying chlorine attacked a local government building in Falluja, in western Iraq, and 15 Iraqi and U.S. security forces were injured in the bomb blasts, the U.S. military said. A number were treated for symptoms linked to chlorine gas inhalation. A police source said eight Iraqi soldiers were killed in the attack.
MAHAWEEL – A car bomb in a crowded market killed five people and wounded 25 in Mahaweel, 75 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
NEAR BAQUBA – Iraqi and U.S. soldiers killed more than 25 insurgents from an al Qaeda-led militant group near the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. 15 suspected militants were detained in the four-day operation.
BAGHDAD – A car bomb killed two civilians and wounded 10 others when it was detonated at a major intersection in southern Baghdad’s mainly Shi’ite Bayaa district, police said. Continued…
BAGHDAD – A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded from indirect fire — a term usually used for mortars or rockets — in Baghdad’s heavily fortified international Green Zone on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
BAGHDAD – A U.S. government contractor was killed as a result of a rocket attack on the Green Zone on Tuesday, the U.S. embassy said in a statement.
ANBAR PROVINCE – Insurgents killed a U.S. Marine on Tuesday in Anbar Province, the U.S. military said.
ANBAR PROVINCE – U.S. forces captured 19 suspected insurgents believed to have ties to al Qaeda in Iraq, the U.S. military said. 11 were captured in different parts of Anbar and eight were captured in Baghdad.
RAMADI – A suicide car bomb killed one civilian and wounded seven others north of Ramadi on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. U.S. forces also found a truck rigged with explosives carrying chlorine nearby.
KIRKUK – A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded two others when it struck a police patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.
SUWAYRA – Police found the bodies of five people, including one that was decapitated, floating in the Tigris river south of Baghdad in Suwayra, police said. The bodies had signs of torture.
BASRA – A British soldier was shot and wounded at police headquarters in the southern city of Basra, a British military spokesman said. “His condition is not graded as very serious,” the spokesman said, giving no further details of his injuries. Asked about Iraqi police reports that a sniper was responsible, the spokesman said: “We don’t know if he was a sniper or not.”
MOSUL – A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol wounded a senior police officer in Mosul, in northern Iraq, police said. Another roadside bomb in Mosul targeting police wounded four more people, police said.
TAL AFAR – At least 50 people were killed and 120 wounded in two truck bomb attacks in the northwestern town of Tal Afar. One of the blasts was detonated by a suicide bomber who lured victims to his truck to buy wheat, the town’s mayor and police chief said. The second exploded in a used car lot. [more]
BAGHDAD – Fifteen bodies were found across Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.
BAGHDAD – One Iraqi soldier was killed and two wounded in a roadside blast in Ghazaliya district in western Baghdad, a Reuters photographer said.
GARMA – A U.S. combat post was attacked by two suicide truck bombs and about 30 gunmen west of Baghdad on Monday, but the soldiers succeeded in repelling them and killing 15. Eight U.S. soldiers were wounded, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.
RAMADI – A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle outside a popular restaurant on a main road north of Ramadi, killing at least 17 people and wounding 32, a source at Ramadi hospital said. The restaurant was frequented by police in an area where local tribes have joined the tribal alliance against al Qaeda. Policemen were among the casualties, the source added.
BAGHDAD – Four people were killed and 14 wounded in a mortar attack in the Shi’ite enclave of Abu Dsheer in Doura district in southern Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed a policeman and wounded two others in southeastern Baghdad, police said.
ISHAQI – Gunmen killed three people in the town of Ishaqi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on Monday, police said.
BAGHDAD – Gunmen killed a police lieutenant working in the Serious Crimes Unit in Zayouna district of eastern Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD – Police found the bodies of 15 people with gunshot wounds and signs of torture in Baghdad on Monday, police said.
ISKANDARIYA – Six mortar rounds landed on a residential area in the of town Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad and killed five civilians and wounded 11 on Monday, the U.S military said in a statement. Iraqi police had said on Monday that three were killed and 13 wounded.
MOSUL – Police found the bodies of four people, including a policeman and a decapitated body, in different parts of Mosul, on Monday, police said.
DIWANIYA – Six bodies were found in different parts of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The victims had been tortured, bound and shot.
MOSUL – Gunmen killed two employees of the social welfare office in Mosul in a drive-by shooting, police said.
ANBAR PROVINCE – A U.S. Marine died in combat in Anbar Province in western Iraq on Saturday, the U.S. military said.
BAGHDAD – U.S. forces detained four suspected insurgents in the cities of Mosul, Falluja and Tarmiya during operations targeting foreign fighter facilitators and al Qaeda militants, the U.S. military said. U.S. forces also found and destroyed a weapons cache in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.
KUFA – Police and residents of Kufa said U.S. forces raided the home of Mohammed al-Tabtabayi, an aide to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but he was not there at the time. His brother was detained, police said. Hospital sources said one person was killed and six wounded when a car and a motorcycle in the area of the raid were fired on. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to queries about the incident.
BAGHDAD – Gunmen opened fire on a police patrol, killing one policeman and wounding two others on Monday in Um al-Maalif district of western Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded four soldiers on Monday in Doura, police said.
MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded two guards of the local head of the municipal council in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
Let’ s leave Monday off the list. Let’s pretend for a moment that Iraqis had as much to mourn as Americans, what with Anna Nichole Smith’s death, and a dozen pets due to tainted food. The uplifting news, being reported on Friday morning is that a Roman Catholic nun is reporting a cure for Parkinson’s Disease. Prayer. Natch. Honest. She’s getting as much coverage as Anna Nichole did last week….