Iraq Watch: November 29, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A previously unknown group calling itself the "Swords of Righteousness Brigade" claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting four anti-war Christian activists late Saturday from their western Baghdad residence. Al-Jazeera broadcast a purported video from the group showing the four - which include two Canadians, an American, and a Briton - which the group announced were "spies working undercover as Christian peace activists."

Meanwhile, in another hostage situation an unnamed militant group threatened to kill a German archaeologist unless Germany ceases all ties with the Iraqi government. Susanne Osthoff was kidnapped Friday and was shown in a video released late yesterday blindfolded and kneeling alongside of her Iraqi driver before three masked gunmen. Osthoff, who speaks fluent Arabic, has worked off-and-on inside Iraq for nearly 15 years.

Elsewhere Tuesday, at least eight Iraqi soldiers were killed and five injured in a suicide car bombing in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of the capital. A U.S. helicopter was called in to help ferry away the wounded. In other violence, Saad Albana, a senior official in Iraq's Housing and Reconstruction Ministry, was abducted from his Baghdad home Tuesday. Thafer Migwil Hazza, a relative of deposed leader Saddam Hussein and former Iraqi army officer was kidnapped at his home by unknown gunmen late Monday.

As the December 15 parliamentary elections near, politically related violence throughout Iraq is on the increase. On Tuesday, two members of the Christian Assyrian Democratic Movement were killed and two wounded while hanging up campaign posters in the northern, ethnically mixed city of Mosul. In Baghdad, Bashar Shnawa Gaber, a senior member of the Iranian-backed Dawa Party was assassinated yesterday the Shiite group said.

Prominent Sunni sheik Hamza Abbas, mufti - or senior Islamic scholar - of Anbar province and head of the Religious Scholars Council, was gunned down Tuesday as he was leaving the Wihda Mosque in Fallujah following evening prayers.

Also, the U.S. military announced that two U.S. soldiers, assigned to Task Force Baghdad, were killed in an IED attack north of the capital at around 10:00 a.m. this morning.

Iraq Watch: November 28, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was again combative at his legal hearings Monday, in the re-start of his monumental trial. Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, following Monday's session, once again decided to adjourn the trial until December 5 in order for the defense to find proper replacements for two slain attorneys.

Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants, most notably former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar, are on trial for the alleged killings of over 140 Shiites in Dujail following an assassination attempt against the dictator in 1982.

Hussein badgered the chief judge with complaints regarding everything from having his pen and legal papers being taken away to being forced to walk up four flights of stairs due to a broken elevator.

When Chief Judge Amin, a Kurd, said he would ask the authorities not to force the embattled former leader to wear handcuffs and shackles - another one of Hussein's grievances - Saddam quipped back, "You are the chief judge. I don't want you to tell them. I want you to order them." Saddam also took shots at the foreign presence inside Iraq referring to them only as "invaders and occupiers."

Meanwhile, insurgents ambushed a bus ferrying British Muslims to Shiite shrines located in southern Iraq on Monday killing two and wounding three others. The attack took place in the violence-plagued Dora neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad.

Security forces continued to search for four foreign charity workers who were abducted over the weekend from the west Baghdad residences. The four, who worked for the staunchly anti-war group 'Christian Peacemakers', included two Canadians, an American, and a Briton. Authorities stated that no militant organization has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

In a separate incident, German authorities announced Monday that a German woman was kidnapped in Iraq last Friday. A still image emerged late Monday purportedly showing the abducted German woman along with her Iraqi driver kneeling before three masked militants.

Elsewhere, in further violence, two Sunni politicians were assassinated in separate incidents. Ayad al-Izzi, of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was killed along with two of his bodyguards as they were making there way to the capital from the Fallujah area. The Iraqi Islamic Party, or IIC, is the largest Sunni political bloc in Iraq. In southern Baghdad, meanwhile, Ghalib al-Sideri, a senior public-relations director for the Council for National Dialogue, was gunned down.

Four U.S. soldiers were wounded in a suicide car bombing in Baqouba while three more U.S. soldiers were hurt in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. Also, in the northern city of Kirkuk, an Iraqi soldier was killed and another injured in an insurgent shooting.

Iraq Watch: November 27, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As final preparations for the re-start of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants' trial - scheduled to begin Monday - were underway, violence continued elsewhere in the war-torn nation.

Controversial former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to serve as an advisor Hussein's defense team. Clark, who was appointed Attorney General by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 and served under him until his term ended in 1969, has garnered fame for representing high-profile figures - most recently deposed Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Four foreign aid workers, including two Canadians, an American, and a Britain, were reported kidnapped Sunday. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction. According to Reuters, the four were taken from a western Baghdad neighborhood yesterday.

Meanwhile, Iraqi police announced Sunday that they have foiled a possible assassination attempt against Raed Juhi, the chief investigative judge in the landmark Saddam Hussein case. Eight men were apprehended in the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk four days ago according to police sources. The group of men reportedly possessed bomb making materials and written instructions from Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former high-ranking official during the Hussein regime.

In violence Sunday, a workday for most Iraqis, a car bomb killed two civilians and injured two more in western Baghdad. Another Iraqi civilian died in a roadside bombing near Baquoba, north of the capital. In Mosul, a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed at least one policeman and wounded another.

The beheaded body of a former Iraqi army cook was discovered Sunday near Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk and an official of the major crimes unit was gunned down by unknown militants in Kerbala.

Also Sunday, the U.S. military announced that a U.S. Marine was killed yesterday in an IED attack near the former rebel-stronghold of Fallujah.

Iraq Watch: November 25, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a sign of the ever-increasing sectarian strife in Iraq a little-known militant group calling itself the 'Partisans of the Sunni' claimed responsibility for a car bombing yesterday in Hillah which killed at least 11 Iraqis and injured 17 more. The group said the attack was in response to Wednesday's early-morning assassination of prominent Sunni sheik Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem near Baghdad.

The organizations communiqué stated, "We have warned the (Shiites) to stop assassinations and detentions and torture," the statement posted Friday said. "You should know, your blood is no more dear than ours. You kill our men, we kill yours. You kill our sheiks, we kill yours. You started this war."

Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier, assigned to Task Force Baghdad, was killed yesterday in a tank accident south of the capital the U.S. military announced Friday.

Speculation continued to swirl Friday regarding the prospect that some Iraqi insurgent groups may be ready to lay down their arms and join the nations budding political process. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's national security advisor, Lt. Gen. Wafiq al-Samarraie, again reiterated Friday that he has been receiving calls from purported representatives of various militant groups about the possibility of discourse. He has, thus far, refused to name the groups who have contacted him or any demands the militant groups may have made. Yesterday, the AP, citing unnamed residents of the volatile Anbar province, reported that at least four insurgent groups were in meetings to discuss nominating a possible spokesperson to represent the groups.

However, all four of the insurgent groups (the Islamic Army of Iraq, the 1920 Revolution Brigade, the Mujahedeen Army, and al-Jamea Brigades) mentioned in the AP article, on Tuesday, issued a joint-statement strongly rejecting any idea of discourse between insurgents and the current Iraqi government saying that the Baghdad-based government is "illegitimate" and "contradicts principles of Islamic Law," or Sharia.

The Iraqi government in recent moths has made attempts to reach out to the 'nationalistic' branch of the current insurgency, like the four aforementioned militant groups, in an attempt to coax them into joining the Iraqi political process and to isolate the foreign-dominated Iraqi insurgent groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunnah.

Iraq Watch: November 23, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants wearing Iraqi army uniforms burst into the house of a senior Sunni sheik near Baghdad early Wednesday killing him and three of his sons.

Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem was a regional leader of the prominent Dulaimi tribe, one of the largest in Iraq. Tribes, or ashira, play an integral part in Iraqi society with many Iraqis pledging their allegiance to a tribe or clan as opposed to the national government.

Iraqi security forces denied involvement in the assassination of al-Hemaiyem and blamed Sunni-led insurgents, bent on intimidating Sunnis from voting in the upcoming December 15 elections, for the killing. However Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, a spokesman for the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), pinned the blame on Shiite-dominated security forces stating, "We warn the [Iraqi] government against continuing with this tyranny."

In Baghdad, insurgents killed the former chief of traffic police, General Mahdi Kassem and Radi Ismail Jawad, a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Industry.

Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier - assigned to Task Force Baghdad - died from a gunshot wound in central Baghdad the U.S. military announced on Wednesday.

Also, the militant group al-Qaida in Iraq released a statement on an Islamic Web site formally denying that their leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a weekend raid on an alleged al-Qaida safe house in the northern city of Mosul.

Lawyers for deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven other co-defendants have reportedly agreed to end their self-imposed boycott of the legal proceedings and will be present for the landmark trials re-start which is scheduled for Monday. The group of defense attorneys decided to boycott the trial following the assassinations of two fellow lawyers in recent weeks.

Iraq Watch: November 22, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber struck next to a convoy of Iraqi police vehicles in the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Tuesday killing at least 21 and wounding an additional 24. The suicide attack began when insurgents opened fire on a police checkpoint. As security forces were investigating the initial shooting incident a suicide car bomber rammed them detonating his explosive-laden vehicle.

Meanwhile, during a ceremonial event, attended by U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and top U.S. military commander in Iraq Gen. George Casey, in Tikrit, north of the capital, militants fired a barrage of mortars sending the top officials scrambling for cover. One of the mortar rounds landed approximately 300 yards from where the ceremony was taking place but failed to detonate properly. No one was hurt in the incident which U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson called "an ineffectual attempt to stop the progress that goes on every day in Iraq."

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of three U.S. service members. One II MEF soldier was killed by an IED yesterday near Habaniyah while conducting combat operations. Two Task Force Freedom soldiers died Saturday as a result of enemy small-arms fire in Mosul.

Elsewhere, three security guards were killed by insurgents in al-Ghadeer, near Kerbala while three Iraqi policemen were gunned down in the volatile city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

Late Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei, an advisor to Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, told Al-Jazeera that he had been contacted by what he called a "senior official of the resistance" responding to Talabani's recent call for insurgents to lay down their arms and attempt to resolve their grievances diplomatically.

This contradicts a joint statement released just yesterday by four of Iraq's most prominent insurgent groups. The Islamic Army in Iraq, the Twentieth Revolution Brigades, the Mujahideen Army, and the Islamic Iraqi Resistance Front released a joint announcement yesterday through the 'Coordination Department of the Jihad Brigades' stating that they categorically and emphatically rejected President Talabani's call for diplomacy. The statement said the current Iraqi government was illegitimate and contradicted the principles of Sharia, or Islamic Law.

Iraq Watch: November 21, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Forensic tests are currently being conducted to determine if one of the eight people killed in a U.S.-led raid Saturday night in the northern city of Mosul was in fact al-Qaida in Iraq's leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

At this point most officials are stating that the dead did not include the wanted Jordanian-born militant. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, was quoted as saying, "Unfortunately, we did not get him in Mosul." White House spokesman Trent Duffy said that reports of al-Zarqawi's death were "highly unlikely and not credible."

Speculation regarding the possible death of a high-ranking insurgent leader, possibly including al-Zarqawi himself, spread Sunday with word of the intense firefight that broke out late Saturday after U.S. and Iraqi forces surrounded a two-story house in eastern Mosul's largely Kurdish Hay al Sokkar neighborhood. Three of the house's occupants blew themselves up causing the structure to collapse. This type of fierce resistance, including the use of suicide bomb vests, has historically indicated that a high-ranking person(s) was on the premise.

Elsewhere in Iraq Monday, U.S. forces mistakenly fired on and killed between three and five Iraqi civilians near Baqouba, 35 miles west of the capital. U.S. spokesman Maj. Steven Warren called the accident "one of these regrettable, tragic incidents."

In the nearby town of Kanan, a roadside bomb exploded next to a U.S. military convoy killing five civilians and wounding 12 others. Separately, shootings in Baghdad killed three people, including an Iraqi policeman.

Also, four Iraqi policemen were killed in a shooting north of Baghdad, in Tarmiyah and in the southern, predominately-Shiite city of Basra, gunmen killed Khalil Ibrahim, a member of the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS).

In another development, representitives of Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds meeting in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Monday agreed that "resistance was a legitimate right for all people" although "terrorism does not represent resistance." The various religious and ethnic sects, according to the AP, also called for the "withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces ... control the borders and the security situation." The three-day conference was organized by the Arab League.

Late Monday, in a separate political development, Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, announced that he would pursue a federal region in southern Iraq following the December 15 elections. Al-Hakim, a Shiite, is head of the most powerful political block in Iraq, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). The issue of autonomous federal states was largely ignored or bypassed in Iraq's draft constitution, due to its divisiveness.

Iraq Watch: November 18, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Suicide bombers walked into the town of Khanaqin's Shiite Sheik Murad Mosque and Grand Mosque detonating their explosive-laden vests instantly killing at least 74 worshippers and injuring over 100 others.

The force of one of the Grand Mosque blast caused the building's roof to collapse, trapping hundreds of Shiites, observing traditional noon prayers, inside. Resident's were still searching for victims in the rubble as the sun set on the predominately Kurdish city, located about six miles from the Iranian border, according to the AP.

In the nations capital city of Baghdad, a coordinated attack against the Harma Hotel - which houses numerous foreign journalists - was carried out.

The attack began at 8:12 a.m. when a white van exploded next to the hotel's security barrier. Less then a minute later a second suicide vehicle, a water tanker loaded with explosives, attempted to breach the guarded fortress by entering through the hole caused by the first blast.

The second driver after trying unsuccessfully to breach the barrier instead detonated his automobile outside the wall destroying several nearby residential complexes. The double suicide attack, which blew window's out of the targeted hotel, killed at least eight Iraqis and injured 43.

Iraq Watch: November 17, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the face of mounting criticism over the discovery of a secret prison in the basement of a Iraqi Interior Ministry building, were many of the mostly Sunni detainees were allegedly found tortured and malnourished, the Iraqi government on Thursday played down the incident and blamed Sunni politicians for greatly exaggerating the situation.

Iraq's Interior Minister, Bayn Jabr, a Shiite, said that those prisoners held at the Jadriyah facility were "the most criminal terrorists" and had come to Iraq to "kill your sons." Jabr went on to say that the Iraqi people "can be proud of our [Interior Ministry] forces." Jabr also stated that only seven of the more than 170 detainees found bore signs of torture.

Many of Iraq's minority Sunnis, who form only about 20% of the total population, accuse the nations' newly empowered Shiite sect of deliberately targeting them in revenge for the years of hardship the Shia people were subjected to under the brutal and ruthless rule of deposed leader and Sunni Saddam Hussein.

In an increasingly unsafe and unpredictable country, Iraqi's have turned to local militias for a sense of security. These powerful groups have deep sectarian and tribal roots that date back centuries.

One prominent militia is the Badr Brigade, whose loyalties are endowed to the leading political organization in Iraq today: the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). The Badr Brigade consists of several smaller offshoot groups, with such infamous names as the 'Wolf Brigade' and 'Volcano Brigade', who operate closely or in coordination with the Iraqi Interior Ministry and its aforementioned leader, who was once himself a Badr member.

Horror stories regarding Shiite militia members are common among Sunni's in today's Iraq. Many tell of Shiite brigades, dressed in full Iraqi security forces garb and driving state-licensed police vehicle's, besieging Sunni districts or towns and rounding up many of the populous' males. Many Sunnis are later found executed and dumped in desolate areas. One such case, in which 46 Sunni males were kidnapped and later found killed and left near the Iranian border, was recently reported by The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two U.S. service members on Thursday. One soldier died and four others were injured Thursday in a traffic accident near Bayji while a Marine was killed by an IED yesterday while conducting combat operations in Hadithah.

In further violence Thursday, a former Baath Party member was gunned down in Karbala and the body of Iraqi police Lt. Col. Sulaiman al-Dulaimi was found, along with his son, near Ramadi.

Iraq Watch: November 16, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Upon the discovery and disclosure of a secret jail hidden in the bowels of an Iraqi Interior Ministry building in southern Baghdad, where more than 173 Sunni prisoners were found tortured and malnourished late Sunday, prominent Iraqi Sunni groups on Wednesday demanded a full investigation into the alleged incident.

Omar Heikal of the Iraqi Islamic Party called for a "fair, international probe so that all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment." Tariq al-Hashimi, secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, harshly criticized the Interior Ministry along with prominet Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani stating that al-Sistani should "condemn these acts and stop covering."

Iraq's Interior Ministry, headed by Shiite Bayan Jabr, has long been accused by Iraq's Sunnis of deliberately targeting the minority religious sect. Much of the ministry, like that of Iraq's security forces, are comprised of former Shiite militiamen. Jabr, himself, is a former leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq's (SCIRI) Badr Brigade.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, in the ongoing 'Operation Steel Curtain' in western Iraq, five U.S. Marines were killed and 11 others injured when they were ambushed by insurgents outside of Ubaydi. Also Wednesday, a Task Force Baghdad soldier died from wounds sustained in an IED attack northwest of the capital. Separately, the U.S. military announced that a U.S. Marine died in a VBIED attack yesterday near Al Karmah.

Also, four Iraqi policemen were killed in two separate shootings Wednesday in the northern city of Mosul and the executed bodies of three unidentified people were found in Mukaithif, south of Tikrit.

Iraq Watch: November 14, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The joint U.S.-Iraqi military offensive dubbed 'Operation Steel Curtain', aimed at rooting out suspected militants near the Syrian border, moved into the town of Ubaydi (or Obeidi) on Monday.

The "sporadic but heavy" fighting in Ubaydi has resulted in casulities on both sides according to reports. Many western Iraqi cities located in the Euphrates River valley like Ubaydi, Husaybah, al-Qaim, and Karabilah are believed to be inhabited with insurgents who are suspected of having ties with al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber targeted a convoy of foreign security contractors killing two South Africans and wounding three others, including an American. The covoy of SUV's was hit as it was leaving the heavily fortified 'Green Zone'. The blast sent plumes of black smoke across the capital city's early-morning skyline.

Elsewhere, in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb apparently intended for a passing U.S. military convoy missed and instead hit two buses killing at least six and injuring 30 others.

A separate roadside bomb blast killed three civilians and wounded four others in eastern Baghdad.

Meanwhile, confusion continued to swirl amid conflicting reports about the status of a top official under Saddam Hussein's deposed regime. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who served as vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, has long reported to be suffering from leukemia. According to AFP, U.S. and Iraqi forces on Monday beseiged Izzat's hometown of Duri, near Tikrit, and were conducting house-to-house searches.

Iraq Watch: November 11, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Word came Friday regarding the possible death of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former high ranking official under deposed leader Saddam Hussein and the senior most Iraqi Baath party figure still at large.

The 63-year-old al-Douri, who had a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture, has long been rumored to suffer from leukemia. He was believed to have played at least some role in the violent insurgency - especially in its early stages - currently plaguing Iraq.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of five U.S. service members on Friday. Two U.S. soldiers were killed by small-arms fire yesterday while conducting combat operations in Khaldiyah. A U.S. Marine was killed yesterday in an IED explosion in Karabilah, near the Syrian border. Two additional U.S. soldiers were killed Friday in a traffic accident northwest of Kirkuk.

In further violence, three Iraqi police officers were killed Friday when their patrol was ambushed in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital. Separately, an Iraqi policeman was killed and three wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Qamishli, located 40 miles south of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, insurgents opened fire outside of the Omani Embassy in Baghdad on Friday killing two people, including an embassy employee. Also in Baghdad, the executed bodies of two unidentified people were discovered in the capital city's western Ghazaliya district.

Iraq Watch: November 10, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the deadliest attack inside Baghdad's city limits in recent weeks, a suicide bomber targeted a restaurant frequented by Iraqi security personnel Thursday morning killing at least 35 Iraqis and wounding 25 others.

28 year-old Uday Mohammed, a worker at the Qadouri restaurant, said the bomber blew himself up the moment he entered the popular eatery located along Abu Nuwas Street. Crying, Mohammed rhetorically asked, "Where should we go? Where should we flee? This is hell all over us."

Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the central Baghdad bombing through a statement posted on the Internet.

The terrorist group also said it was behind yesterday's suicide bombings in Amman, Jordan which killed at least 56 people.

Also in Baghdad, two city council employees were gunned down by insurgents in the capital's western Ghazaliya neighborhood.

Separately, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi army recruiting center in Tikrit, 80 miles north of the capital, killing seven and injuring 13.

Elsewhere, the executed bodies of some 27 people were discovered near Jassan, located on the Iranian border. The unidentified victims were all found bound, blindfolded, and shot in the head.

Iraq Watch: November 8, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Adel al-Zubeidi, a defense lawyer for former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, was assassinated Tuesday as he drove through the Baghdad neighborhood of Adil. Another defense lawyer, Thamir al-Khuzaie, was wounded in the early-afternoon ambush.

The latest shooting, which follows the kidnapping and murder of another defense lawyer - Saadoun al-Janabi - in October, puts into question whether the trail against Sadam Hussein and seven co-defendants, stemming from an alleged 1982 massacre of over 140 Shiites in Dujail, can move forward. The trial is scheduled to resume later this month.

Saddam's chief lawyer, Abdel Haq Alani, told the Associated Press that the U.S. was to blame for the insecurity surrounding the landmark legal proceedings. "The whole trial, the bloodshed in Iraq, the killings, the violence and everything else wouldn't have happened, had the Americans not invaded Iraq."

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. military announced that the town of Husaybah, located near the Syrian border, is now secure as a result of 'Operation Steel Curtian'. The offensive, designed to root out militants with ties to al-Qaida in Iraq, has resulted in the deaths of 36 suspected insurgents and the apprehension of more than 150 men of military age the military said. One U.S. Marine has died in the fighting thus far.

Four Iraqi soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Dali Abbas, northeast of the capital while two Iraqi policemen died in separate bombing near Daquq, south of Kirkuk.

South of Baghdad, the bodies of six people, all handcuffed, were found near a water treatment plant.

Iraq Watch: November 7, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As 'Operation Steel Curtain' moved into its third day, violence erupted elsewhere in the war-torn nation.

The joint military operation, consisting of approxamiltely 2,500 U.S. and 1,000 Iraqi forces, is designed to root out suspected militants from strongholds near the Syrian border.

At least 36 suspected insurgents and one U.S. Marine have been killed in the offensive. Nine U.S. service members have been wounded according to CNN.

In addition to the one U.S. service member killed in 'Operation Steel Curtain' the U.S. military announced the deaths of five U.S. military personal on Monday. Four Task Force Baghdad soldiers died in a VBIED attack south of Baghdad while another U.S. soldier was killed by an IED late Sunday near ad Dwar.

Six Iraqi soldiers and three civilians were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the capital's volatile southern neighborhood of Dora. In eastern Baghdad, five people were killed and four wounded in a mortar blast near a Turkomen club.

Ahmed Hussein Al-Maliki, a journalist for the Tal Afar Today, was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on him in the northern city of Mosul. Also in northern Iraq, a suicide car bomber struck Iraqi soldiers guarding oil installiations southwest of Kirkuk killing at least two and injuring 13.

Iraq Watch: November 6, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - 'Operation Steel Curtain' moved into its second day as U.S. and Iraqi forces combed through the dusty streets of the predominately Sunni town of Husaybah, 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, on Sunday searching house-to-house for suspected insurgents with ties to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group, al-Qaida in Iraq.

Many residents of Husaybah fled the city in anticipatiion of violence. Ahmed Mukhlef, a 35 year-old teacher from the besieged town, told the Associated Press, "I left everything behind — my car, my house. I don't care if my house is bombed or looted, as long as I have my kids and wife safe with me."

Husaybah, located on the Iraqi-Syrian border, is considered to be a vital city for foreign fighters infiltrating into Iraq and a staging ground of sorts for insurgent attacks.

Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of the Sunni National Dialogue Council, criticized the military operation in a Sunday press conference stating, "American forces accompanied by what is called the Iraqi army and national guard are conducting a destructive and killing operation of secure cities and villages on the pretext that they hide and secure terrorists."

In other violence on Sunday, three Iraqis were killed and seven injured in a car bomb attack in the western Baghdad district of Yarmuk.

Elsewhere, three truck drivers delivering supplies to coalition forces were killed in an ambush near Balad, about 45 miles north of the capital.

Iraq Watch: November 4, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A coordinated ambush in Buhriz, 35 miles north of Baghdad, left at least six Iraqi police dead and ten injured as Iraq's majority Shiite's began the three-day holiday of Eid al-Fitr (Eid), marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The attack started with militants launching mortar rounds against a police checkpoint. The insurgents then drove up in at least eight cars and opened fire on the Iraqi police sparking a gunbattle.

Some reports say the attackers in Buhriz were disguised in women's clothing.

Separately, in Tuz Khormato, five Iraqi police commandos working with the Interior Ministry were killed in a roadside bombing. Four additional policemen were wounded in the bombing.

Elsewhere, a Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed Friday by an IED in eastern Baghdad while another U.S. soldier died from 'non-battle' related injuries late Thursday near Tallil the U.S. military announced on Friday.

The U.S. military also announced Friday that it killed five 'senior' al-Qaida in Iraq leaders in airstrikes last Saturday in Husaybah, west of the capital near the Syrian border. The five militant leaders were identified as: Abu Asil, Abu Raghad, Abu Talha, Abu Usama, and Abu Salman.

In the Dora section of southern Baghdad a roadside bomb killed three civilians and Tarijk Hasan, a former colonel in the Iraqi air force, was gunned down as he drove through the capital city.

A new message posted on the Internet today, purportedly from the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, reiterated its warning to foreign diplomats in Iraq stating, "We will not spare any effort in tracking them down and punishing them, whoever they are and wherever they are."

Iraq Watch: November 2, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As the three-day holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, approaches, the nationwide violence, particularly against U.S. forces and Shiites, shows no signs of abating.

On Wednesday in Musayyib, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle near an outdoor marker bustling with civilians purchasing fresh foods to prepare for the breaking of the daylong fast observed by Muslims during Ramadan.

At least 22 people were killed and 60 more wounded in the early-evening bombing.

Two similar bombings have occurred over the past week in the predominately Shiite cities of Huwaider and Basra.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of six U.S. service members on Wednesday, including two Marines who were killed in a helicopter crash around 8:15 this morning near Ramadi.

In further violence, a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy on the outskirts of Baghdad missed and instead destroyed a minibus following closly behind the U.S. vehicles. At least five Iraqis were killed and another six wounded in the bombing.

A separate roadside bombing in the capital city killed five Iraqi soldiers and injured four.

To the north in Kirkuk, a car bomb killed at least two Iraqis and wounded seven others.

In an effort to alleviate some of the relentless violence plaguing the nation, Iraq's Sunni Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi, pleaded for low-level members of Saddam Hussein's army to re-inlist with the new Iraqi army.

Shortly after U.S. troops took control of Iraq in 2003 the decision to completely disband Saddam's army was made by the then head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer. This decision is largely seen as a mistake now, fueling the nationalist division of the current insurgency.

Insurgent groups such as the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Twentieth Revolutionary Brigades are believed to be comprised largely of former members of Iraq's disbanded army.