Updated at 5:58 p.m. EST, Feb. 20, 2009
The weekly prayer day was fairly quiet, only nine Iraqis were reported killed and three more were wounded. Meanwhile, a U.S. Army medic accused of murdering four Iraqi detainees was found guilty today.
In a message read during Friday prayers at a Sadr City mosque, Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said that he hopes recent elections will help Iraqis push out U.S. occupation forces. The fiery cleric has fought with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over permitting the U.S. to continue operating within the country; however, in recent weeks, Sadr has extended a hand towards Maliki. Perhaps, that is due to his list winning elections, but it could also be due to increasing anti-U.S. rhetoric from Maliki.
In Baghdad, a sniper wounded an Iraqi soldier in the Mansour district.
A pair of blasts outside an Abu Ghraib home killed a woman and her two children. Two men were also wounded.
Gunmen killed a man outside his home in Latifiya.
A decayed body was found inside a Hilla home. The body bore gunshot wounds.
Three shepherds were killed when they came across a landmine in Jasan district, Wassit province. The landmine is believed to be leftover from the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
In Baquba, an Iraqi soldier was killed when a roadside bomb attached to a car exploded. A suspected armed groups leader was arrested .
A roadside bomb targeting a patrol in Riyadh injured an Iraqi soldier.
Six suspects were arrested in Mosul.
In Basra, 38 suspects were detained.
In Amara, security forces defused an I.E.D. found at a prayer-day market.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
