Updated at 4:10 p.m. EDT, Aug. 15, 2008
At least 22 Iraqis were killed and another 68 were wounded in the latest attacks. Two U.S. servicemembers were killed in separate events. In Tikrit, two foreign fighters were killed as well. Meanwhile, attacks against Shi’ite pilgrims heading towards Karbala for the Shabaniyah observance continue.
A U.S. Marine was killed during security operations in Fallujah yesterday. Today, a U.S. soldier was killed in a non-combat related event.
Iraqi forces are replacing the Georgian troops who left their post on the Iraq-Iran border to return home during during the Ossetia crises. Meanwhile, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that regional countries should help Iraq when U.S. forces leave but noted that Iran has no plans to send in their forces. Also, U.S. intelligence officials are concerned about the training of assassination squads in Iran and their return to Iraq in the coming months.
The International Organization for Migration reports that several thousand displaced Iraqis are in constant need of humanitarian help. These Iraqis have been forced to live in tents, some surrounded by garbage, because of the war.
In Baghdad, a minibus carrying pilgrims to Karbala hit a roadside bomb; one person was killed and 11 were wounded in the Ghadeer area. A blast in Mansour wounded six people, including three Iraqi soldiers. Mortar blasts in Zaafaraniya left two people with wounds.
At least nine people were killed and as many as 48 were wounded when a bomb on a minibus blasted a group of Shi’ite pilgrims in Balad.
Iraqi police killed 10 Iraqi gunmen and two foreign fighters during clashes in Tikrit.
In Mosul, a car bomb killed one Iraq soldier.
A gunman was killed and two more were captured in Kirkuk.
A sheikh survived an assassination attempt in Fallujah, but is now in hospital being treated for injuries.
In Wassit, two men were arrested and a weapons cache was found separately.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
