Updated at 9:12 p.m. EDT, Mar. 29, 2011
At least 63 Iraqis were killed and 108 were wounded today. The worst attack targeted the Salah ad Din provincial council and left several lawmakers dead. U.S. forces were called in to assist Iraqi security forces there. Also, Arab residents in Ninewa province are outraged the province has a new Kurdish governor and Turkmen council chief.
An attack on a Tikrit building housing the provincial council left as many as 58 dead and 97 wounded. Most of the casualties were government employees, including army generals, but at least one of the dead was a journalist. Several gunmen, wearing military uniforms, stormed the building and took hostages using diversionary car bombs, grenades, and explosive bets. Three lawmakers may have been kidnapped and are missing; however, they could also be the same three lawmakers who were executed and set on fire before the attack ended. U.S. forces participated to some degree in the operation that liberated the hostages.
An attack on a colonel’s home in Abu Ghraib left him wounded and two brothers killed. Two soldiers were wounded in a separate bombing.
In Baghdad, a rocket attack on a hotel housing the National Iraqi News Agency left three wounded; a number of Iraqi tribal chieftains were in the building at the time. A sticky bomb in Mansour killed the dean of the Mustansiriya dentistry college.
Gunmen stormed a house in Garma, where they killed a policeman and wounded four of his family members.
In Mosul, gunmen killed an off-duty cop while a roadside bomb wounded a police captain.
A member of the Qayara council was arrested.
