Iraq Watch: June 30, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - 'Operation Sword' continued in western Iraq's Al-Anbar province on Thursday. The operation, focused near the town of Hit, began on June 28.

The U.S. military announced that they have captured at least 13 suspected insurgents and have uncovered numerous weapons caches during the latest military procedure attempting to root out insurgents operating in the vast desert region near the Syrian border.

Violence persisted throughout Iraq on Thursday. An assassination attempt against a police chief in the town of Baquoba left two Iraqis dead and at least four others wounded, including the targeted police chief.

Elsewhere, in Mosul, two employees of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan were shot to death.

In the southern city of Samawah, a mortar shell exploded outside a Japanese military base early Thursday. No casulities were reported.

Iraq Watch: June 27, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. helicopter crashed near Mishahda, about 20 miles north of Baghdad, on Monday killing both pilots aboard the Apache attack helicopter. The AP reports that the aircraft was downed as the result of a rocket attack.

The U.S. military also announced Monday that a Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed in a small-arms fire attack in central Baghdad today. According to the release the attack occured at about 10:15 a.m. when the soldier was inspecting a vehicle fire.

Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad killing at least four people and wounding at least 16 more. The blast occured in the New Baghdad area between a movie cinema and a Sunni mosque.

Also in the capital, a roadside bomb killed two civilians when it exploded next to an Iraqi police patrol in the Azamiyah district of northern Baghdad.

CNN reports that late Sunday three Iraqis were killed when gunmen in al-Jadida attacked a barbershop there. Al-Jadida is a religiously mixed area located in southeastern Baghdad.

Iraq Watch: June 26, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three suicide bombings in the northern city of Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, killed at least 33 people and wounded another 19.

In the capital itself a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others. The bombing in the central part of Baghdad occured at about 10:40 a.m.

The first bombing in Mosul hit a downtown police station killing at least 12 people including 10 policemen. The two-story building was heavily damaged in the blast.

The next attacker detonated his explosives-laden vehicle in the parking lot of an Iraqi army base on the outskirts of the city killing 16 and wounding another seven. The AP reports that most of the victims were civilian workers arriving at the site.

The third attack in Mosul targeted police guarding a teaching hospital killing at least five policemen. Another 12 Iraqi police were injured in the suicide bomb blast.

The group al-Qaida in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the Mosul attacks in a message posted on an Islamic militant web site.

Elsewhere, six Iraqi soldiers were gunned down near their army base in Sadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed reports by London's Sunday Times that American officials have been meeting with representatives of various insurgent groups inside Iraq in an attempt to help quell the violence there.

The Secretary also said Sunday that the insurgency in Iraq could last for years. This statement, along with others recently, seem to directly contradict the May 31 comment made by Vice President Dick Cheney that the insurgency was in its 'last throes.'

Iraq Watch: June 24, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Near the war-torn city of Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber rammed into a U.S. military convoy on Thursday killing two U.S. Marines and leaving three Marines and a Sailor missing and presumed dead the U.S. military announced on Friday.

Another 13 Marines, 11 of whom were women, were wounded in the bombing the statement said.

The suicide attack was claimed by the militant group al-Qaida in Iraq led by Jordanian born Abu Musab al-Zarqai.

On Friday, a day after the attack, Fallujah was in a virtual lockdown with U.S. forces telling residents over loudspeakers to stay inside their homes.

The bodies of nine people, six of whom had been beheaded, were found near Baghdad on Friday according to AFP.

An aide to Iraq's most powerful Shiite figure Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was killed Friday. Samara al-Baghdadi was shot to death along with two of his bodyguards in the al-Amin district of Baghdad.

In the capital on Thursday gunmen assasinated police Lt. Col. Majid Faisl Aziz as he was driving in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amariyah police said on Friday. Majid Aziz was a member of the Interior Ministry's major crime division.

In Washington President Bush met with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari at the White House on Friday. The two leaders vowed to stay the course in Iraq despite recent clamoring in America for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Middle-Eastern nation.

This disapproval was reaffirmed once again Friday when a AP-Ipsos poll found that 53% of Americans now believe the Iraq war was a mistake while 56% disapprove of the way the Bush administration has handled the conflict.