Updated at 12:35 p.m. EST, Jan. 12, 2007
Violence is generally lighter on Friday prayer days, and this week was no different. Only 41 people were killed or found dead and 10 were wounded in violent acts. No foreign deaths were reported.
Coalition authorities reported that U.S. helicopters helped break up a gathering of militants; three alleged militia members were killed. Forces also conducted a two-day combat operation in Yusifiyah; no casualties were reported, but three suspects were detained. A U.S. vehicle in Ramadi was reportedly blasted by a roadside bomb, no casualties have, as yet, been reported nor have U.S authorities confirmed the incident.
In Mosul, the former governor of al-Beaj, Abdullah Fahd al-Aagrash, his wife and grown son were killed outside his home. During clashes with militants, Iraqi police killed an armed man and seized a weapons laden truck. A car bomb and mortars exploded in the city; one child was killed. Medical authorities also reported that seven bodies bearing gunshot wounds were turned into the hospital; among them was the body of a journalist working for an Iraqi newspaper. And four Turkish truck drivers were kidnapped.
A Sunni mosque in Baghdad came under a machine-gun attack as Friday services were ending; two guards were injured in the ensuing clash. Also, 10 unidentified bodies were recovered throughout the capital.
An Iraqi army base in Fallujah was attacked, but the number of casualties was not released.
In Khalis, gunmen killed four Shi’ite fruit traders and their Kurd driver.
Two unidentified bodies were found in al Muaalmeen.
A mortar fell on a primary school in Ragat Shifta; a teacher and a student were injured. Also, security officials reported that American troops were fired upon; when they returned fire, a woman and child were killed, another two people injured from the same family were injured.
A child was injured in Muqdadiyah when a bomb exploded near a home. In a separate explosion, an Iraqi soldier was killed and three others injured.
A disembodied head was discovered in Baquba.
In Basmaia, three bodies were found.
Gunmen killed a taxi driver, a civilian and the civilian’s son in Karbala.
Also, Iraqi forces detained 47 suspects in Fallujah, six is Iskandariyah, and captured a cell leader in Qasaiba village.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
