Updated at 11:25 p.m EST, Jan. 15, 1007
Before dawn, Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and a former judge were executed in Baghdad. Another 87 Iraqis were killed and 80 were wounded in violent acts throughout the country today. Also, the first American troops in U.S. President Bush’s new Iraq plan arrived in Baghdad.
Two of Saddam Hussein’s aides were hung before dawn this morning. Ibrahim Barzan, who was Saddam’s half-brother, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty of a mass murder in Dujail that was in retaliation for a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam. They were executed 16 days after the former leader was hung for the same crime. As in Saddam’s execution, controversy follows their hangings.
Coalition forces killed two militants during a raid in Fallujah. Another militant was killed and one was injured by British forces in Basra.
In Baghdad, three policemen were killed and two more wounded when a roadside bomb blasted their patrol car in the Rustamiya district. Two people were wounded by a car bomb on Nidhal Street. A suicide car bomber at a checkpoint in the Jamiaa district killed four Iraqi army soldiers and wounded three others. A bomb on Jadriya bridge killed one and another bomb in Sadiya injured another person. Professor Abdul Kareem al Janabi from the technology university was kidnapped; another five people were kidnapped in the Jadida neighborhood. And, 30 unidenfified bodies were discovered throughout the capital.
In Mosul, a suicide car bomber killed at least 4 people and wounded 38 others at the office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party; more casualties are expected. Gunmen also shot dead a former army colonel and a man. Two black market petrol vendors were shot dead in a drive-by and warning leaflets were dropped at the scene.
The bodies of 11 people were found in separate locations in Baquba.
In Kirkuk, a car bomb wounded 11 people outside the home of an automobile dealer. A second car bomb an hour later killed two and wounded four more civilians. A Katyusha rocket wounded two people when it landed on a private home. Also, two people were killed and five wounded when a car bomb exploded near the offices of the Turkman Front Party.
One person was wounded when gunmen attacked shops in Iskandariya.
In Kut, gunmen killed a garbage contractor and a translator in separate incidents; both worked for U.S. forces.
Two people were killed and four injured by mortars falling in Yusufiya.
In Khalis last night, the Iraqi army clashed with militia members; six militants were killed.
A Kurdish civilian was killed in Muqdadiya.
Eight bodies were brought into the morgue in Diyala.
Police found a body north of Baquba. In the city, a teacher was injured during an unspecified attack.
In Balad Ruz, three civilians were injured in a blast.
In Basra, Lieutenant Colonel Aqeel Hasan, an officer in the criminal intelligence unit, was injured in an assassination attempt; two of his bodyguards were killed.
And a police officer was gunned down in Missen province, and wounded a second officer in a separate event.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
