Updated at 7:15 p.m. EDT, Aug. 3, 2009
At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 65 more were wounded across Iraq, but Babil province took the hardest the hit with three fatal bombings. Another significant attack took place in Anbar. The DoD reported that one American soldier died on July 25 from wounds suffered two days earlier in an anti-tank grenade attack. Meanwhile, the Shi’ite group Asa’ib al-Haq renounced violence after meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over the weekend; the extremist group has previously taken credit for killing Americans and kidnapping Britons.
Hilla was rocked by two separate but near simultaneous blasts. Five civilians were killed and 21 more were injured on a passenger bus in a northern district. The second bomb, also on a bus, killed one person and wounded as many as seven others in the Abi Gharq area.
A bomb killed a Shi’ite pilgrim and wounded three more in Iskandariya. Three wanted men were arrested during a raid.
Five people were killed and 18 more were wounded when a car bomb exploded just north of Fallujah in Saqlawiya. The police chief was the apparent target.
In Mosul, two policemen were killed during a blast in Yarmouk district yesterday. In the Bikr district, gunmen using machine guns killed one soldier and wounded four more. Police killed a suspected car bomber and found dynamite in his vehicle. Yesterday, gunmen killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded another in separate incidents.
Just west of Mosul in Wadi Akkab, a roadside bomb killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded two more. A roadside bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded four more, also west of the city.
In Baghdad, two civilians were wounded during a blast in Bab al-Sharji. A bomb in Risala wounded two more. Bombs fell on the Green Zone but no casualties were reported. Five bank robbers were captured.
One civilian was injured when a bomb targeting the head of the Tal Afar municipality blasted him instead.
Twenty-one suspects were detained during raids in the greater Ramadi area.
A woman who failed to carry out a suicide bombing was sentenced to seven years for the attempt. The was captured at a checkpoint in Katoun last year.
