68 Iraqi Motorists Killed in Northern District in Last Three Months

At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded in new violence, but police in the northern district of Daquq reported that 68 people have been killed there in the last three months. Meanwhile, Turkey conducted more air strikes on rebel targets in Iraq. Also, militants targeted the electrical infrastructure.

A police director in Duquq said that insurgents killed 68 people within the district over the last three months, but only five bodies have been found. The victims were all driving vehicles, and most, if not all, these deaths went unreported until now. Gharib Kawa said that he learned of the operation from two Ansar al-Sunna militants who were arrested in Baghdad.

Turkey claims to have hit several Kurdish Rebel hideouts in northern Iraq during air strikes today. The warplanes and helicopters entered Iraq after clashes left dozens dead across the border in Turkey yesterday. Fighting between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish troops generally intensifies during the summer when routes between rebel camps in northern Iraq and targets in Turkey become passable.

Insurgents sabotaged various electric-power lines in Diyala province, mostly around the city of Adhaim. Although no one was injured, the damage will take a week to repair. Customers lost power in Khalis and even Baghdad. Power lines near Hawija were also destroyed. Iraqis are accustomed to dwindling power supplies, but riots have previously broken out over a lack of power during the summer heat. This may have been the goal of the bombers.

At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 22 more were wounded in current violence.

A car bomb targeting a judge who oversees terrorism cases in Kirkuk exploded, killing two people and wounded 16 others, including bodyguards and police. The judge was wounded, but the two people killed were civilian bystanders.

In Falluja, an I.E.D. blast wounded three members of a military officer’s family. A separate bomb killed one civilian and wounded three others. A third bomb killed two people.

Gunmen killed three people, including a woman, at separate locations in Mosul.

In Baghdad, a female lawyer was gunned down near the Atifiya bridge.

Two soldiers were wounded in a blast in Khanaqin.

A bomb wounded a civilian outside Saidiya.

The Iraqi Kurd editor of a magazine advocating relations between Kurdistan and Israel has been missing from Suleimaniya for 10 days.

Author: Margaret Griffis

Margaret Griffis is a journalist from Miami Beach, Florida and has been covering Iraqi casualties for Antiwar.com since 2006.