Today’s attacks concentrated on police personnel, but one also came close to harming the United Nation’s top envoy to Iraq. At least 19 Iraqis were killed and 25 more were wounded in those and other attacks. As many as 15 Iranian pilgrims were injured as well. Also, an Iraqi general says he will investigate claims that journalists are still being beaten by security personnel.
The top U.N. envoy to Iraq, Ad Melkert, traveled to Najaf to visit with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. After the meeting, his convoy encountered a roadside bomb. Melkert escaped injury, but an Iraqi policeman was killed and three others were injured. The chief of police said the attack targeted police not Melkert.
At least 11 Iraqis were killed, including an infant, in a bombing outside a high-level security official’s home in Tikrit. Four others were wounded. Three people were wounded in other attacks.
In Baghdad, a pair of sticky bombs wounded 15 Iranians on two separate buses. One Sahwa was killed and four others were wounded in a blast in Adhamiya. Yesterday, two photojournalists were beaten by Iraqi soldiers as they were covering a bomb attack. A bomb outside town wounded two Sahwa.
Three policemen were killed and two more were wounded in a blast in Samarra.
Bombs were planted near the homes of police and Sahwa members in Baiji, but only five people were wounded.
Gunmen killed an off-duty security guard in Kirkuk. Ten suspects were arrested.
In Mosul, a man was killed as he was handling a bomb.
A blast killed a man in Baquba.
Twenty-one suspects were arrested in Basra.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has given Turkey until the end of the month to make good on promises and end harassment of PKK supporters or they will end their unilateral truce.
