Updated at 12:25 p.m. EST, Dec. 11, 2006
Four American soldiers were killed today and another three injured when they were blasted by separate roadside bombs in or just west of the capital. This brings the total for December to 42 American servicemember deaths. One death was reported late Sunday night and the other three early the next morning. Also, at least 127 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 47 wounded.
Clashes between Shi’ite and Sunni groups erupted in several locations, and U.S. forces were called in to help alleviate some of the fighting in the Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiyah. American troops also killed three militiamen after observing them planting a roadside bomb in Saqlawiyah.
Several incidents occurred in Baghdad: In the Hurriyah district, 17 bodies were recovered; at least another 43 bodies were recovered elsewhere. Shi’ites attacked Sunni homes also in Hurriya; 30 families fled the area, and one person was killed. Gunmen stormed a home in the Jihad neighborhood and killed five Shi’ite brothers, one a policeman. During a similar attack nearby, a Shi’ite man and his three sons were also killed. In the Amil neighborhood, five people were killed and six wounded in a clash between Shi’ite militiamen and members of the Sunni Janabat tribe. Similar clashes occurred in the Adil neighborhood where a large Sunni demonstration demanding better protection took place..
Colonel Yarub Khazal was shot dead in Baghdad’s Yarmouk neighborhood. Also in Yarmouk, a roadside bomb wounded three soldiers in a passing Iraqi army patrol. Two people were killed and two wounded when a mortar landed in the Kadhimiya district. Two more people were killed and eight injured by a mortar in the neighborhood of Azamiyah.
On a road north of Baghdad, two children were killed and six other members of the same family were wounded during a drive-by shooting.
In Ramadi, three people were wounded in a mortar attack. Gunmen also launched rocket-propelled grenades at a joint U.S.-Iraqi checkpoint; a university student standing nearby was killed in the attack.
Three bodies were recovered in Mosul; two belonged to policemen and one to an Iraqi army soldier.
During a series of attacks in Baquba, seven people were killed.
In Tikrit, gunmen killed a hospital security guard while he was on his way to work.
A 15-year-old baker and a hairdresser were killed in separate events in Kirkuk, and two policemen were injured in a third event.
In Rabia, a suicide car bomber rammed fuel trucks in a carpark, setting them on fire.
Near Mishada, well-known television director Hussein Rasheed al-Tikriti was kidnapped yesterday.
A sniper killed three Iraqi soldiers in Saqlawiyah. Five civilians, including a woman an child, were injured during the crossfire.
In Mahmudiya, three bodies were found bearing gunshot wounds and signs of torture.
Two people were killed and six others injured while relocating themselves in an unspecified part of the Diyala province; two of the injured were under six years of age.
Clashes between Iraqi army and gunmen in Khalis left four gunmen dead and one injured.
A mortar round fell on a home in southern Basra, killing one and injuring five others, four of them children.
And four grocers were shot dead near Jididat al Shat.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
