An extraordinary number of attacks on checkpoints and other security targets occurred across central and northern Iraq today. Most of them produced few casualties each, but together they eclipsed a bombing in Baghdad that left dozens killed or injured there. Overall, at least 54 people were killed and 74 more were wounded. Only yesterday, the Iraqi government, in releasing July casualties statistics admitted that violence in on the rise.
In Baghdad, a bomb killed nine people and wounded 32 others in Husseiniya; residents attacked federal police with their bare hands after the blast.
Four family members were killed in an attack on their home in Kirkuk. The attackers slashed the throats of a Turkmen couple in one room, while their two daughters were killed in another. Gunmen attacked a military site south of the city where five of them were killed and sixth was wounded.
Seven security personnel were killed and 11 more were wounded in attacks in and around Tuz Khormato.
In Abu Ghraib, gunmen killed four policemen in an early morning attack. they planted bombs there that subsequently killed one more policeman and wounded three others.
Gunmen killed four policemen in Awja.
A bomb in Yathrib killed three Sahwa members.
Three security personnel were killed when gunmen tried to takeover a checkpoint in al-Rutba. A police commander was killed and four bodyguards were wounded. It is unclear if these are both the same incident.
In Baiji, three gunmen were killed during an attack on a checkpoint.
Two policemen were killed and three more were wounded during an attack in Dour.
Gunmen killed a Sahwa member and a soldier at a checkpoint in Samarra; a policeman was also wounded.
A soldier was killed at a checkpoint in Dujail. Four colleagues were kidnapped.
In Haditha, a roadside bomb wounded four policemen. Gunmen wounded three more east of town. A gunman was killed and two policemen were wounded in an attack at a checkpoint.
Gunmen killed a soldier and wounded two more in Kanaan.
In Tal Afar, gunmen killed a policeman and wounded two more.
A Sahwa member was killed and two more were wounded in a small arms attack in Diyala province.
A civilian was killed and a policeman was wounded in an attack in Falluja.
An attack on a checkpoint in Ahmed al-Ani left one soldier with injuries.
In Balad, two soldiers were wounded in another checkpoint attack.
