Updated at 12:10 p.m. EST, Jan. 15, 2007
Violence picked up in the capital and continued apace in Mosul and Kirkuk. Overall, 101 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 26 wounded in violent incidents Sunday. The Baghdad morgue reported taking in 16,000 unidentified bodies last year. Also, military authorities reported the deaths of three GIs in separate incidents.
Military authorities reported that one American soldier was killed and another soldier wounded on Saturday in northern Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded four others in central Baghdad on Sunday. Also, an MP was also killed when a roadside bomb blasted his vehicle in Baghdad, also on Sunday.
The morgue in Baghdad reported that in 2006 they processed 16,000 unidentified bodies and that the bulk was victims of sectarian violence. This figure is only for Baghdad and does not include the identified dead or those who were buried without passing through the morgue. Authorities in Diyala province released their own figures. They reported that over 4600 people were killed, 2500 were injured and 7000 families were displaced last year.
In Northern Iraq on Saturday, an explosion killed one GI and wounded a second soldier. A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in Baiji; no casualties were reported but one truck was burned. Also, U.S. forces raided a university in Tikrit and detained four students after, according to witnesses, destroying property and assaulting several people. On Haifa street in Baghdad, where combined forces conducted a major raid earlier in the week, Iraqi soldiers killed eight suspects and detained three more; almost a hundred detainees were captured throughout the country. Sources also report that 75 suspects have been killed in Balad Ruz since Jan. 5.
In the capital, the bodies of an As-Sabah worker and his driver were found, beheaded, this morning; they had been kidnapped yesterday. Gunmen randomly shot two people in the Sadiya district. Seven were killed in a carpenters workshop. A Sunni awqaf (endowments) department official, Khaled Abdul-Hadi Al-Ghawas, was assassinated in the Cairo suburb. Also, two brothers were gunned down Saturday; they worked as guards for Iraqiya TV.
Also in Baghdad, a car bomb at Tayaran square killed one person and injured six. A roadside bomb injured two in the Amil district. Mortars fell in central Baghdad where they killed a civilian and wounded two others. Eight more were wounded when mortars fell on Palestine street. A police patrol struck a roadside bomb and then came under small arms fire, but no casualties were reported. Also, 40 bodies were found dumped in various locations throughout the city.
In Mosul, gunmen killed eight people, including a lieutenant colonel in the former Iraqi army, a dentist and an army captain, in separate events. A gathering of people came under attack from gunmen; three were killed and another four wounded. Also, nine bodies were turned in to the morgue.
In Kirkuk, police found a body that was shot in the head, and a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan survived an assassination attempt.
Gunmen attacked a factory in Iskandariya where they killed three and wounded one other person.
A correspondent for As-Sabah newspaper was killed in Anbar province.
Police found a severed head in Baiji.
In Madaen, clashes with gunmen lead to the deaths of four Iraqi policemen.
Two policemen were killed in Basra.
Five security personnel were killed and two wounded in Baquba.
Gunmen injured one policeman in Balad Ruz.
And at a fake checkpoint in Balad, gunmen kidnapped two Iraqi army officers and one soldier.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
