Updated at 10:40 p.m. EST, Nov. 4, 2006
Security forces in Iraq are on high alert awaiting the Sunday outcome of Saddam Hussein’s trial. Hoping to curb any violence the expected guilty verdict might incite, authorities have also ordered a special curfew in Baghdad and other parts of the country. However, these measures did not prevent a violent clash in southeastern Baghdad. At least 53 gunmen died in the battle. Including these deaths, 102 Iraqis were killed and 65 wounded today. Also, four Russians were hurt in a mortar attack on a power plant.
Late Friday night on the Baghdad-Kirkuk highway, a bomb killed five of President Talabani’s personal guards and wounded two others; Talabani is in France. Meanwhile in northern Baghdad, gunmen killed reporter Ahmed Al-Rasheed who was recently working for Al Sharqia television, and four Russians were injured when a mortar struck the power plant that they were working on near Basra. Today, gunmen wounded two of Prime Minister Maliki’s bodyguards in Yusufiya.
In Baghdad, up to 15 unidentified bodies were discovered late Friday into Saturday; they bore signs of torture and gunshot wounds. In western Baghdad, gunmen in a car killed three people and wounded five others. A car bomb in the Babel area killed two and wounded three others. In eastern Baghdad’s al-Talbiya neighborhood, a car bomb killed two and wounded five. Mortars fell on a police station and crowded marketplace; two policemen, one civilian were killed and eight others were injured. In northern neighborhood, mortars also fell on a mosque, killing five and wounding 17 others. Also, a criminal law professor was kidnapped from his home.
Eleven were wounded in Suwayrah when a cycle bomb exploded in a marketplace. Three bodies were also fished out of the Tigris.
In separate incidents in Mosul, five people were shot dead.
In Mahmudiya, a car bomb killed one civilian and wounded three others.
Gunmen killed a civilian in Diwaniya; four were subsequently arrested.
In two separate events in Mosul, four Iraqis were injured.
In Zaafarana, a clash between gunmen and policemen in a market left an unspecified number of Iraqis injured.
A woman and her son were shot dead and another three wounded in Latifiya.
In Kirkuk, a sniper killed a policeman as his team was difusing a bomb.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
