Updated at 7:25 p.m. EDT, June 18, 2008
Relative peace returned to Iraq a day after a major bombing in Baghdad caused well over a hundred casualties. Still, more bodies were found in the rubble or died in hospital from yesterday’s explosion. Overall, at least 15 Iraqis were killed and 42 more were wounded in light violence. Meanwhile, no Coalition deaths were reported today.
An unknown number of workers may have been kidnapped in Wassit province.
In Baghdad, the casualty tally from yesterday’s bombing in Hurriya rose by 12 deaths to a total of 63 killed. At a hospital serving the bombing victims, 15 journalists were injured as they were covering a row between hospital security staff and bodyguards working for a provincial chief. When security forces noticed the journalists recording the incident, they proceeded to beat them.
Also in the capital, a bombing in Karrada injured four people, including two police commandos. Gunmen kidnapped five employees carrying the payroll for Mustansiriya University; they released the men later but took off with $540,000. Also, two dumped bodies were found.
In Mosul, a bomb left in a taxi wounded 14 people. Four people were wounded in a separate incident.
A policeman was killed and two more were wounded when a roadside bomb blasted them near a petrol station in Kirkuk’s al-Waseti neighborhood. Three policemen were injured in a second bombing. A militant was captured in a separate event.
Police found an explosive’s cache in Thi Qar province. Meanwhile, the police chief said that they are on stand-by should a security crackdown in neighboring Missan province cause problems for them.
Four suspects were detained in Basra.
Karbala police foiled a kidnapping and arrested a border guard in separate incidents.
In Diyala province, 25 innocent detainees were freed.
Turkey claimed to have killed three PKK rebels while eight others surrendered. Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been at odds over an independent Kurdistan for over two decades. Reports from both sides are considered unreliable.
A weapons cache was found in an old cemetery in Amara. Also, 12 policemen were arrested for hiding weapons at the jail. Three other suspects were detained elsewhere.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
