Updated at 7:58 p.m. EDT, Apr. 16, 2009
At least 17 Iraqis were killed and 8 were wounded in the latest violence. U.S. forces conducted a pair of raids in different parts of Iraq. One of the raids has the potential for blowing up politically as the Iraqi’s are calling it a violation of a security pact between the U.S. and Iraq. No Coalition deaths were reported.
U.S. forces raided a home in Kut. A man and his sister-in-law were killed. Four men were arrested. Among the detainees was a police captain and tribal chief. Iraqi officials subsequently arrested two of their own commanders who gave the go-ahead to the raid, while hundreds of local residents protested the raid. Later, U.S. forces denied killing the man, then reversed their position and also claimed the woman’s death was accidental. They said they had full permission of Iraqi authorities. The Wassit provincial council said the raid violated the current U.S.-Iraqi security pact. Later, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also denounced the raid as a pact violation.
Gunmen stormed a Kirkuk home, killing a Christian woman and her daughter-in-law. A man was killed in another raid on a Christian home in the same neighborhood; his father and brother were wounded.
Two brothers and a man were killed in two separate drive-by shootings in Mosul. One of the brothers was an Iraqi soldier.
U.S. forces killed seven al-Qaeda suspects and detained nine more in Duluiya.
Two Awakening Council members were wounded during a blast in Iskandariya.
One person was killed and two others were wounded during a fire and riot and a Basra prison.
In Baghdad, a policeman was killed and another was wounded during a bombing in the Doura neighborhood.
A landmine in Makhmour wounded a shepherd.
Eighteen suspects were captured in Shahraban in connection with a deadly bombing this week that killed dozens of Iranian pilgrims.
Three al-Qaeda suspects were arrested in Saadiya. Two had suicide vests in their possession.
A car bomb was defused in Fallujah.
