Updated at 5:30 p.m. EDT, Aug. 16, 2009
At least 15 Iraqis were killed and 46 more were wounded in the latest violence. A Shabak leader survived an assassination attempt with light injuries, but his fellow Arab and Kurd councilmembers used the attack to heighten their own rivalry. This complicated situation in the northern provinces has left the country’s planning minister with no choice but to postpone the first full census in over two decades. The fear is that the count could further intensify sectarian tensions ahead of January’s national election.
In Mosul, the Shabak representative in the Ninewa council survived a bomb blast while traveling on a road he regularly uses. He and two bodyguards suffered only minor injuries. Gunmen wounded six people, including two policemen, when they threw a grenade at police patrolling a market; a similar incident occurred yesterday. A soldier was shot dead. Gunmen killed at least one other soldier.
In Baghdad, eight people were killed and at least 24 others were wounded at a Jadidya falafel stand when bombs hidden in garbage were detonated. Two people were wounded in a blast in the Karrada district.
Gunmen attacked in a home in Fallujah. When the residents ran out of ammunition, the gunmen stormed a policeman’s home, killing four people, including two Awakening Council (Sahwa) members. The home was then blown-up and the gunmen fled. Five others were wounded in the incident. In a separate attack, gunmen attacked the home of the police chief, where two of the gunmen were injured and detained. A blast just outside a music shop left no casualties.
A roadside bomb wounded two Iraqi soldiers in Amiriyat al-Fallujah.
In Jalawla, a sniper killed a policeman.
Gunmen wounded an Iraqi soldier in Kirkuk. A Sahwa member was wounded in a roadside bombing.
Two suspects were arrested with the help of residents in Latifiya.
Sixteen suspects were arrested in Basra.
