Updated at 7:16 p.m. EST, Feb. 10, 2010
Numerous small attacks left at least five Iraqis killed and 28 more wounded. Meanwhile, an Iraqi journalist detained for 17 months on "classified" information has been released.
Freelance journalist Ibrahim Jassam has been released after 17 months in U.S. detention. The photographer, who worked for Reuters among other news organizations, was never charged with a crime. He was arrested, and his equipment was seized, during a Sept. 2008 raid on his family’s home in Mahmoudiya. Although an Iraqi court in December of that year concluded that Jassam was innocent, the U.S. refused to release him. It was the third time that Jassam was detained without charges.
The U.S. maintains the right to indefinitely hold anyone deemed a security risk and has used this declared right to detain several Iraqi journalists on similarly non-existent charges. Most were released within weeks of arrest. The U.S. has also been extremely slow in honoring the Iraq-U.S. SOFA agreement that went into effect at the beginning of 2009. Under the agreement, all Iraqi detainees must be handed over to Iraqi authorities.
In Baghdad, a car bomb targeting police wounded five people, including two civilians.
Two policemen were killed and four others were wounded during a blast in Abu Ghraib.
In Mosul, three people were wounded in a blast, including the mayor of Kokjli neighborhood. Five were wounded when gunmen lobbed a grenade at a checkpoint. A bomb attached to a car killed a Peshmerga fighter. One more person was injured in a previously reported blast. A suspected al-Qaeda leader was captured.
Gunmen blew-up a home in Fallujah, injuring a civilian.
In Ameriya, police clashed with gunmen. A policeman and a civilian were wounded.
Near Baquba, two people were killed and a third person was wounded when gunmen attacked their home. A blast north of the city wounded a man and a child.
An I.E.D. wounded four people in Balad Ruz.
Hundreds protested in Tikrit, where security forces have kept the Salah ad Din provincial council building under lockdown. Council members and other officials were among the demonstrators.
An oil pipeline in Rashidiya suffered a bomb attack. Workers are repairing the pipeline, but output has been cut in half.
Three arms traffickers were arrested in Saidiya.
Police in Habbaniya stopped a truck and discovered 120 sticky bombs inside it.
Two bombs were defused near Nasariya.
Twenty-four suspects were captured in Basra.
A large weapons cache was found in Ninewa province.
Joint forces arrested six in Hawija; however, a U.S. official denied joint activities and said U.S. forces only assist in emergencies. This revelation possibly contradicts recent reports that Iraqi, Kurd, and U.S. forces are working together in Kirkuk province.
The United Nations closed one of two border camps housing Palestinian refugees living in Iraq. Several countries took in the refugees who had been living in horrifying conditions at the camps. The remaining camp still houses about 1,000 Palestinians and 200 other people of various nationalities. The Palestinians were subjected to sectarian violence after the 2003 invasion and were forced into the makeshift camps near the al-Tanf and al-Waleed crossings at Syrian border.
Iraq ordered 250 current and former Blackwater employees to leave Iraq within seven days.
