Updated 9:00 p.m EST, Nov. 3, 2006
Authorities in Baghdad reported the discovery of 87 bodies scattered throughout the capital over a 36-hour period. This brings the tally to 132 Iraqis killed and 14 wounded. In prominent deaths, the gunshot-riddled body of journalist Abdul Majeed Ismael Khalil was discovered in Baghdad; he was abducted last month. Gunmen also killed singer Resan al-Sayab and television journalist Ahmed Rasheed in separate incidents in the capital. U.S. forces, conducting raids in the Mahmudiya area killed 13 suspected militiamen and destroyed various types of weaponry. In rare good news, a Greek kidnap victim is free and unharmed; the woman was in Baghdad delivering medicine to a hospital when she was abducted.
In Baghdad, the harvest of corpses yielded 87 unidentified bodies and one severed head over a 36-hour period ending Friday night. Many of the bodies showed the typical signs of sectarian violence, which include handcuffing, blindfolds, gunshot wounds and torture marks. This is the largest cache of corpses discovered since the end of Ramadan. Gunmen in the Doura neighborhood shot dead a taxi driver. In a separate incident nearby, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded three civilians instead. Also in Doura, mortars fell on a private home, killing three family members and wounding six. Three Katyusha rockets landed in a southern neighborhood, killing one man and wounding nine others, which included women and children.
Seven bodies were fished out of the Tigris at Suwayrah. Three bodies were found in the Wadha area, and two more bullet-riddled bodies were found outside Karmah.
In Kifil, a Shi’ite sheikh was shot dead as he left his home.
A landmine killed two juvenile shepherds and wounded three others in Kermashia.
At a police checkpoint in Numaniya, two gunmen were wounded and a third arrested.
In the town of Manathira, Shiite cleric Sadiq al-Hakim’s bodyguard was shot dead by gunmen.
Two policemen were killed in central Kirkuk when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol. Elsewhere in the city, a Sunni preacher was shot dead.
In Zab, gunmen killed a fuel station employee.
No casualties were reported after clashes between Iraqi police and gunmen in Madaen; however, a roadside bomb killed four policemen.
Mass graves are being dug throughout the country for the victims of sectarian violence. Authorities reported that almost 300 unidentified bodies have been laid to rest in the cities of Kut and Karbala alone.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
