Updated at 12:07 p.m. EDT, April 15, 2007
An extremely violent day in Iraq left at least 164 Iraqis dead and 345 injured, with numbers sure to rise in the coming hours. A bombing at a bus station in Karbala and another on a bridge in Baghdad had the heaviest tolls; however, numerous attacks occurred all over the country. At least 26 Iraqis were kidnapped in separate events. No foreign casualties were reported.
At least 47 were killed and more than 224 wounded during a car bomb attack near the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala; earlier reports had the toll at 56 deaths. Hundreds of grieving people swarmed ambulances and attacked both the governor’s office and police. Curfews were put in place to prevent further rioting. Four people were killed during the protests.
In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber at the Jadriyah bridge downtown killed 35 people and injured at least 50 others. The bridge suffered little damage. Earlier in the week, another major bridge on the Tigris River was destroyed in a bomb attack. In Sadr City, one person was killed and 11 wounded when they drank chlorine tainted water; it was not clear whether it was sabotage or an accident.
Elsewhere in the capital, gunmen attacked the western Baghdad home of the head of the largest Sunni bloc in the parliament; he was not home, but five guards were injured while repelling the attack. Three bodyguards were injured in a drive-by shooting on a convoy belonging to the deputy minister of industry. In a southwestern neighborhood, a policeman was shot dead. Three electrical workers were injured by a bomb in a garbage can in Bayaa. One person was killed and another two injured in a roadside bombing. A second bomb killed one and injured four in the Sheikh Omar neighborhood. Three people were injured when a roadside bomb exploded in Yarmouk. Two gunmen were killed and 129 arrested by Iraqi security forces. Also, 20 dumped corpses were found.
A group linked to al-Qaeda claimed they kidnapped 20 Iraqi soldiers and policemen and demanded that all Iraqi women be released from prisons. Six farmers were kidnapped in western Khalis.
In Mosul, a hospital director and his son were injured when gunmen fired upon their car. Six bodies were found on Friday. One car bomb resulted in no injuries. The bodies of two soldiers were discovered.
Three motorists were killed and three more wounded during a roadside bombing in Khalis.
Four would-be suicide bombers in Kirkuk were killed when one of them set off his explosives prematurely. A bomb at an Internet cafe injured no one.
British forces killed eight militants in Basra after watching them plant bombs in the path of a British patrol.
Three civilians and a policeman were killed in drive-by shootings in Fallujah and Hilla.
Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and one injured during clashes with gunmen in Fallujah. The director of the nationality office was killed and his eight-year-old son wounded in a drive-by attack.
Two policemen and a civilian died in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad.
A mortar round killed three Iraqi soldiers and wounded four others at a base in Suwayra.
One civilian was killed and nine wounded during a roadside bomb attack in Baquba. A lieutenant colonel and two escorts were killed and eight others were wounded during a separate roadside bombing.
A police colonel and two bodyguards escaped an assassination attempt in Kut with only injuries. Gunmen injured the former assistant to the Wassit police chief during an attack.
Gunmen killed one pedestrian and wounded a second during a shooting in Riyadh.
A sniper killed a woman in Tal Afar.
Gunmen killed a Mussayab policeman.
Two soldiers were killed and three others wounded during a mortar attack in Samra.
Mortars fell once again on a U.S. base in Diwaniya, but no casualties were reported.
Clashes erupted in Banjwin, near the Iranian border between border guards and Kurdistani militants. The number of casualties was not reported.
A suicide bomber crashed his vehicle into a checkpoint in the western Baiji area, killing four soldiers and wounding five others.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
