Updated at 9:45 p.m. EST, Dec. 5, 2009
At least six Iraqis were killed and 13 more were wounded in attacks across Iraq. Meanwhile, lawmakers have apparently reversed an elections law amendment that had delighted Kurd citizens but enraged their Sunni counterparts; however, a conflicting report notes that a quorum was not reached in parliament, imperiling the passage of the law.
Elsewhere, Amnesty International issued a press release urging Iraqi authorities to suspend the death penalty as 900 Iraqis, some the victims of unfair trials, await execution. Also, six senior doctors in the United Kingdom are pushing for a new inquest into the death of a U.N. weapons inspector who was revealed to be a secret BBC source.
In Mosul, a police officer and two guards were killed in a small arms attack. Gunmen killed a woman and wounded her daughter. Gunmen also killed an elderly man in a separate shooting.
A body was found in Hamrim.
Three policemen were wounded during a bomb blast in Imam Weis.
In Baghdad, one policeman was critically injured during a shooting in Wathiq Square. Two people were wounded in an adhesive-bomb blast in Saidiya. A bomb in Bab al-Muadham wounded five soldiers. In Shabb, a civilian was kidnapped. A U.S. patrol suffered a bomb attack but no casualties were reported. Hundreds of police and soldiers spent the Eid al-Adha holiday harassing nightclub owners; some blame the raids on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and accuse him of colluding with fundamentalists.
Gunmen wounded a political activist in Suleimaniyah.
In Basra, no casualties were reported after a Katyusha rocket attack on the airport. Nine suspects were captured in raids across the province.
Iraqi soldiers freed a kidnap victim and arrested three abductors in Salah ad Din province.
Two suspects were arrested in Karbala. A weapons cache was found west of the city.
Two al-Qaeda suspects were captured in Suwayra.
Tal Afar imposed new security measures ahead of a Shi’ite pilgrimage that will take worshippers to Najaf.
In Turkey, one soldier was killed and one was wounded during clashes with Kurdish rebels.
A Kurdish man, who was taken as an infant to Iran after his hometown of Halabja suffered a chemical weapons attack, was reunited with his birthmother after 20 years and DNA test. Most of his family was killed in the attack, but his mother survived after being taken to Iran for treatment as well. He was adopted by an Iranian family, but always knew of his Kurdish roots.
