Updated at 11:55 p.m. EDT, Oct. 17, 2006
In today’s developments, at least 77 Iraqis have died and 49 more were injured. The Department of Defense today announced the death of an American soldier in Iraq; he died of non-combat related injuries on Saturday. According to a news report also released today, the family of a wounded sergeant revealed that one British soldier was killed and another injured in Basra during a mortar attack on Sunday.
In Baghdad, two bound and blindfolded bodies were found early today in the capital; another 30 bodies were found later in various parts of the city. Mortar rounds fell on Wathiq Square and in the Doura neighborhood; five died and 20 were injured. A car bomb in the capital left one policeman dead and three others injured.
Four bound and tortured bodies were found in Haditha.
Fatah al-Herki, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was killed in a drive-by shooting in Mosul. Gunmen also stormed the house of the province governor’s brother; one man was killed and a policeman was wounded. In an incident just outside the city, a senior Iraqi army officer was killed by masked gunmen.
In Balad Ruz, gunmen stormed a Shi’ite home and killed a woman and her four grown sons. The father was also injured.
Authorities reported that three militiamen were killed in a small arms firefight in Ramadi.
In Fallujah, gunmen shot dead two policemen in their patrol car.
Ten people were killed in separate shootings in Basra; the dead included four students and a well-known doctor.
In Kirkuk, two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the police academy; there were no other casualties reported.
A roadside bomb blast in Karmah killed five Iraqi soldiers.
In Hillah, an attack on an electrical facility left one technician dead and wounded five guards. Elsewhere in town, gunmen stormed a home and kidnapped the son of a merchant.
A booby-trapped car in Al-Saydiya killed two and injured 10 near the Shakir Al-Oboud Mosque.
In Balad, where sectarian violence expoded over the weekend, more kidnappings have been reported. Al-Sharqiya TV also reports that bombs fell in the Shutaita neighborhood. One person was killed and five others injured.
In Samarra, Gunmen injured Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai’s two nephews; he is an official at the Sunni Endowment group.
A suicide car bomber targeted a checkpoint in Shirqat. He killed a soldier and wounded two others.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
