Updated at 2:15 a.m EST, Mar. 5, 2007
U.S. troops re-entered Sadr City by the hundreds. No casualties were reported there, but 59 Iraqis were killed in separate events elsewhere, and another 23 were injured. Also, the family of a Navy corpsman said that he was killed by an explosive device in Ramadi on Thursday, while the U.S. military reported the death of a Marine in Anbar Province on Saturday. A British soldier was injured in a shootout in central Basra.
A video of an execution of 18 men was posted on a website previously used by an al-Qaeda affiliated group. The men had been reported kidnapped two days ago when the bodies of 14 policemen were found near Baghdad. The group claimed that the two groups were not the same men, but that both groups had been killed in retaliation for an alleged rape.
In what is being called by some a "provocative act," hundreds of Iraqi and U.S. troops entered Sadr City and conducted house-to-house searches. No casualties or fighting was reported.
Iraqi forces supported by the British raided an Iraqi intelligence agency detention where they freed 37 captives and discovered evidence of torture. At least one militant was killed and 106 others arrested in various raids in Baghdad. Fourteen more arrests occurred in Kirkuk. An air raid by U.S. forces led to the release of four hostages in southern Iraq. Also, a U.S. airbase near Fallujah was attacked with Katyusha rockets, but no casualties were reported.
In Baghdad, ten bodies were recovered from several neighborhoods. A car bomb killed one person and wounded four others in the Doura neighborhood. In a separate incident nearby, a roadside bomb wounded two people. A roadside bomb in central Baghdad killed one and wounded three. Another in the Karrada district killed two and wounded four. Also, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s house caught fire, but the cause was unknown.
Gunmen in Baghdad’s Adhamiya neighborhood attacked a police unit, killing one officer and wounding two others. A senior editor at the independent al-Mashriq daily, Mohan al-Dhaher, was shot dead during a botched kidnapping attempt. Also, a Defense Ministry adviser, who was kidnapped yesterday, was freed during a raid today.
Near Hilla, three women and a girl were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol. They were on their way to Kerbala for a religious observance. Six other pilgrims were hurt. During a raid by U.S, forces on a mosque, a woman was injured and three suspects were detained.
At least 10 bodies were discovered scattered throughout Mosul. Two policemen were killed and three injured during a clash with gunmen in the al-Zuhour neighborhood.
A roadside bomb killed four Iraqi soldiers near Baquba.
Two bodies were found near Tikrit, and two civilians were gunned down in a village east of town.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
