Iraq Watch: March 31, 2006

Sporadic Violence Speckled Across Country

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A day after U.S. journalist Jill Carroll was released some three months after she was abducted, sporadic insurgent violence was reported across Iraq Friday.

In the capital city, a mortar round killed three women early Friday when it slammed into the northeastern Gaylani neighborhood.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, authorities discovered the executed bodies of six men in the western Jamaa district of the violence-plagued city.

Three car bombs went off in the notorious Dora neighborhood of the capital city killing at least one person. Additionally, seven people were wounded in the multiple blasts, which took place almost instantaneously near an outdoor market place.

Near the restive city of Baqouba, the provincial capital of Diyala province, gunmen killed at least five members of a Shiite family when they opened fire on their car according to AFP.

In the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, an Iraqi policeman was slain by armed insurgents.

Just south of the capital, guerillas detonated an explosive device underneath a mjor oil pipeline sending plumes of thick black smoke into the air.

Meanwhile, on the tumultuous political front, the BBC reports that Iraqi leaders have resumed talks on forming a government following a two-day respite.

One of the most continuous issues surrounding the formation of a unity government is that of prime minister.

Current Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari – already re-nominated for a second term by his political bloc, the powerful Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) – has come under increased pressure as of late to step aside due to his decisiveness.

The main power broker in the formation of an Iraqi government, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, has reportedly urged key politicians into persuading al-Jaafari to drop out of the bidding for a second term. This perceived meddling in Iraqi politics has drawn the ire of some of al-Jaafari's supporters.

On Friday, one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders, Mohammed al-Yacoubi, called for the resignation of Khalizad stating: "It (the United States) should not yield to terrorist blackmail and should not be deluded or misled by spiteful sectarians. It should replace its ambassador to Iraq if it wants to protect itself from further failures."

Iraq Watch: March 30, 2006

American Hostage Carroll Released

BAGHDAD, Iraq - After being held hostage for nearly three months, The Christian Science Monitor's Jill Carroll was released by her captors early Thursday afternoon.

Carroll's 82-day ordeal ended shortly after noon when she was dropped off near the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party's (IIP) offices in western Baghdad.

The 28-year-old freelance journalist was abducted January 7 while on assignment in the capital's western Adil neighborhood. Allan Enwiyah, Carroll's translator, was killed during the course of the kidnapping.

The previously unknown Revenge Brigades claimed responsibility for the abduction and threatened to kill her by February 26 unless all female detainees being held at U.S. and Iraqi detention facilities were released.

During an impromptu interview conducted shortly after her release by the Iraqi Islamic Party Carroll, wearing a traditional Arab head dress, was quoted as saying, "I was treated very well, it's important people know that."

Late Thursday, according to the SITE Institute, the Revenge Brigades issued an 8:50 minute video of Carroll prior to her release. The video, conducted in English, could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, in ongoing violence, eight oil refinery workers were killed by militants Thursday after being ambushed in Beiji, an industrial city located about 110 miles north of Baghdad.

Also, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two service members Thursday. A U.S. airman, assigned to the 447th Air Expeditionary Group, was killed and another injured by a roadside bomb near Baghdad while conducting safing operations. Separately, the U.S. military announced that a U.S. soldier from the 9th Naval Construction Regiment died from wounds sustained Tuesday "due to enemy action" in the volatile Anbar province.

Iraq Watch: March 24, 2006

Ongoing Violence Kills Nearly 50

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Attacks killed nearly 50 people Friday as the U.S. military launched an operation aimed at stymieing insurgent activity near the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Sectarian violence, pitting Iraq's majority Shiite sect against the minority Sunnis, roared again Friday when a car bomb exploded outside of a Sunni mosque in Khalis, northeast of the capital. The blast, which occurred shortly after traditional Jummah noon prayers, killed at least five and injured 15.

Violence and animosity between followers of the two major branches of Islam in Iraq – already simmering in post-invasion Iraq – erupted following the February 22 bombing of the holy Askariya shrine in Samarra leaving well over 1,000 Iraqis dead in its bloody wake.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers launched a joint raid in five villages surrounding Kirkuk Friday. "Operation Scorpion" was enacted in order to hunt for suspected insurgents believed to be operating in the area.

Yesterday the U.S. military announced the start of "Operation Northern Lights." The joint U.S.-Iraqi operation, which began March 22 according to a military statement, is focusing on the Abu Ghraib area, just west of Baghdad. Thus far, the 1,400 military personnel involved in the operation, have apprehended 16 suspected militants along with two persons of "high-value interest."

The U.S. military also announced the deaths of two U.S. soldiers Friday. The soldiers – assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 28th Division – were killed yesterday "due to enemy action" while operating in the restive Anbar province.

In other violence, three Iraqi policemen were gunned down in western Baghdad while four pastry shop employees were shot to death in southern Baghdad's Saydiyah neighborhood. As Iraqi police reported to the scene of the bakery shooting a roadside bomb exploded leaving one police officer dead.

Elsewhere in the capital, police reported finding at least 13 executed bodies in three Baghdad neighborhoods early Friday. All the corpses were found blindfolded and shot in the head with some bearing signs of torture.

To the north, in Beiji, the bodies of two Iraqi soldiers who had been executed by insurgents were found. Also north of the capital, militants gunned down three power station employees on their way to work in Taji.

Iraq Watch: March 23, 2006

58 Killed in Attacks; Hostages Freed

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 58 Iraqis were killed in attacks around the country including 25 who died in a car bombing near the Iraqi Interior Ministry Major Crimes Unit in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, U.S. and British forces rescued three Christian peace activists who were taken hostage by the previously unknown "Swords of Righteousness Brigades" nearly four months ago.

The captives – Briton Norman Kember and Canadians Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney – were rescued from a western Baghdad home early Thursday morning following a tip received from a recently captured detainee.

American Tom Fox, abducted along with the other three Christian Peacemaker Teams employees, was found executed March 9 in Baghdad.

In Thursday's bloodiest attack a suicide car bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle at the entrance of Iraq's Major Crimes Unit headquarters in the Karradah district of central Baghdad. At least 15 police and 10 civilians were killed in the massive explosion. The blast at the Interior Ministry-run complex also wounded more than 35 people.

Nine Iraqi soldiers, meanwhile, were slain in a separate suicide car bombing near the sprawling al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq's volatile Anbar province according to Reuters.

Elsewhere, in the religiously mixed Shurta neighborhood of southwestern Baghdad a car bomb exploded outside of a Shiite mosque leaving at least six Iraqis dead and over 20 injured.

Also in the capital city, the executed bodies of six unidentified individuals were discovered. Near the former rebel-stronghold of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, American troops reported finding eight more corpses.

Following the February 22 bombing of the sacred Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra, scores of discarded bodies – believed to be victims of sectarian tit-for-tat reprisal killings – have been found throughout the war-torn nation.

Additionally, at least seven Iraqi policemen were killed in bombings and shootings across the country Thursday.

In southern Iraq, a roadside bomb attack claimed the life of a Danish soldier Thursday. The blast, which also wounded another Danish soldier, took place during a combat patrol. The bulk of Denmark's military contingency, consisting of some 530 troops, is located outside the southern port-city of Basra. Thursday's death marks the third Danish fatality since the U.S.-led war in Iraq began in March 2003.

Iraq Watch: March 22, 2006

Police Station Attack Repelled; Shiite Pilgrims Targeted in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - For the second time in as many days, militants launched an attack on an Iraqi police station. Following Tuesday's brazen and well-planned assault on a federal compound in Muqdadiyah, which resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Iraqi security forces and the freeing of over 30 prisoners, insurgents on Wednesday barraged an Iraqi special forces center in Madain, 16 miles south of Baghdad.

Around 60 insurgents participated in Wednesday's assault against the Iraqi Interior Ministry-run Third Public Order Brigade compound in Madain. The attack began when, according to authorities, guerillas struck the center with a bombardment of mortar fire followed quickly by masked gunmen yielding automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The ensuing firefight left at least four Iraqi police officers dead including Col. Ahmad Salim Daher, deputy commander of the elite anti-terror unit according to the New York Times.

Responding to the gunbattle U.S. and Iraqi forces were able to apprehend at least 50 of the alleged perpetrators.

Madain is a religiously mixed agricultural town located inside Iraq's infamous "Triangle of Death," an area south of Baghdad known for its sectarian violence.

Meanwhile, in the capital city, gunmen attacked Shiite pilgrims returning from the Ashoura religious festival in Karbala commemorating the death of the revered Imam Hussein. At least six Shiites were killed and over 50 were wounded in the markedly sectarian attack.

AFP reports that Iraqi police later discovered the executed bodies of 13 men, also believed to be pilgrims, dumped in western Baghdad near the area of the shootings.

To the south, in the port city of Basra, two British soldiers were wounded and their civilian interpreter was killed in a roadside bomb explosion.

Elsewhere, gunmen killed three men transporting goods near Baqouba. As Iraqi police responded to the scene, a bomb detonated injuring one policeman.

Iraq Watch: March 21, 2006

Militants Launch Assault on Prison Northeast of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents early Tuesday launched a brazen assault on a prison compound located about 60 miles northeast of the capital in Muqdadiyah. The 100-man strong guerilla raid resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Iraqi security forces. The militants were also able to free 33 prisoners in the process. At least 10 insurgents were killed in the intense fighting.

Reinforcements were hobbled by an array of obstacles including sabotaged telephone lines and a gauntlet of roadside bombs planted by the assailants.

Muqdadiyah, a religiously mixed city of some 100,000, is situated near the Iranian border in the often-restive Diyala province.

The Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella insurgent organization, which is comprised of seven militant groups including the infamous al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the sophisticated prison ambush according to AFP.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced that a MND-B soldier was slain by small-arms fire Tuesday while on patrol in western Baghdad.

In other violence Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed two Iraqi policemen and injured another in Baqouba.

Police reported finding eight executed bodies thrown under a Baghdad highway. The corpses were blindfolded and bore signs of torture according to the AP. Elsewhere, in Suwera, authorities discovered four more bodies along the banks of the Tigris River.

Also in Baghdad, an employee of the mayor's office was gunned down on his way to work in the volatile Dora district of the city.

Iraq Watch: March 14, 2006

Nearly 90 Bodies, Victims of Sectarian Strife, Discovered Across Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 87 executed corpses have been discovered throughout the war-ravaged nation of Iraq within the last day authorities announced on Tuesday.

The largest single grisly find came in the eastern Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Kamaliyah where some 29 men were found stacked in a shallow mass grave. The 18-by-24-foot grave was discovered by a group of Iraqi youths playing soccer.

Across town, in a predominately-Sunni district of western Baghdad, 15 more men — all strangled to death — were found discarded in an abandoned minibus.

Additionally, overnight Monday, at least 40 executed bodies were discovered in and around the capital city.

Three more bodies were found in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Despite repeated calls for calm and unity from Iraq's clerical elite, sectarian reprisal slayings have been on the increase since the February 22 bombing of the holy Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra.

The latest round of violence follows Sunday's car bombing in Baghdad's Sadr City — a bustling Shiite slum and base of support for maverick cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — which killed at least 58 people and wounded over 200.

In an effort to combat more potential bloodshed, Iraqi authorities announced Tuesday that a vehicle ban would be implemented beginning Wednesday night and ending Thursday afternoon. The driving restrictions coincide with the scheduled inaugural meeting of Iraq's new parliament Thursday.

In other violence Tuesday, a roadside bomb targeting Shiite pilgrims near Baqouba killed one and injured seven.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of two U.S. soldiers, assigned to the 2-28 Brigade Combat Team, who were killed as a result of "enemy action" yesterday in the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq.

Iraq Watch: March 10, 2006

President Sets Parliamentary Date; Car Bomb Rattles Fallujah

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, on Friday, called for Iraq's newly elected parliament to met March 19 — a week after the original deadline.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomber shook the once restive city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, on Friday killing at least five people.

Talabani summoned parliament despite not having reached an agreement on a prime minister.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's current prime minister, was nominated by his political bloc, the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), for a second term but al-Jaafari's nomination has come under intense scrutiny as of late in the country's tenuous, sectarian atmosphere.

President Talabani told the al-Arabiya television network, "There is a serious crisis, and if we don't agree on a government of national unity there will be dangerous consequences, a catastrophe. We could have civil war."

In Fallujah, the car bomber drove his explosive-laden vehicle into a joint U.S.-Iraqi security checkpoint in the eastern part of the mostly Sunni city. The blast left at least five people dead, including a U.S. Marine, according to the U.S. military. Reuters put the death toll at 11 while AFP reported eight deaths in the incident.

In ongoing sectarian violence, which has been on the up tick following the February 22 bombing of the revered Shiite Askariya shrine, a Sunni imam was killed along with another civilian when a car bomb detonated outside of the Qiba mosque in Samarra.

The capital city saw sporadic violence as well Friday as thousands flocked to traditional Jumuah prayers. Two police officers were killed and four wounded when a roadside bomb exploded next to their patrol in a western district of the city.

Separately, one Iraqi police officer was killed and four were injured in two bombings in Tikrit, north of the capital.

Also in Baghdad, authorities discovered the executed bodies of six unidentified individuals. All six of the men, believed to be between the ages of 30 and 45, were found blindfolded, handcuffed, and shot in the head. Additionally, two more executed bodies, one with its throat slit, were found near Kut, 100 miles southeast of the capital.

Iraq Watch: March 9, 2006

Attacks Continue; U.S. Announces Plans to Hand Over Abu Ghraib

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militant attacks on Thursday killed nearly 20 people as the U.S. announced plans to transfer authority of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison to Iraqi authorities within the next three months.

The prison complex, located in Baghdad's western outskirts, was built by British contractors in the 1960s. Under Saddam Hussein's rule, the vast complex was used to house hundreds-of-thousands of political prisoners whom the Baath regime viewed as a potential threat. Thousands reportedly were systematically tortured and killed within its concrete corridors over Saddam's 24-year reign.

Following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 the notorious facility was taken over by American forces and renamed Baghdad Central Confinement Facility (BCCF).

The U.S., as the previous regime did, used the facility — manned by some 24 odd guard towers — as a detention center for suspected insurgents. In 2004 pictures and video leaked out depicted grotesque abuses being committed by American prison guards against Iraqi detainees at the compound. The "Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal," as it became to be known, sparked furor and animosity towards the U.S. throughout Iraq and the Muslim world.

The more than 4,500 prisoners still being held at Abu Ghraib will be transferred to Camp Cropper once its construction is completed.

Despite the negative symbolic nature that Abu Ghraib holds in the minds of many, U.S. military officials insist that the decision to transfer authority of the prison to Iraqi authorities was primarily for security reasons. "Abu Ghraib prison is in a region that has been susceptible to attacks and it is difficult to support logistically, so there has always been the intention the move detainees to a more secure location," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

Relentless violence persisted throughout Iraq on Thursday.

In the capital's Sunni Amariyah neighborhood a car bomb killed at least nine civilians and injured six others. A separate car bomb, exploding near eastern Baghdad's Al-Israa Walmiraj mosque, left five Iraqis dead and 12 wounded.

Also in the capital city — home to over seven million — a third car bomb detonated near Baghdad's central Yarmouk hospital killing two.

Meanwhile, two Iraqis who worked in the International Zone, or "Green Zone," were gunned down Thursday as they were waiting for a government shuttle.

Police near the former rebel-bastion of Fallujah made a grizzly discovery Thursday when they came across the executed bodies of three men. Two more bodies were found near the Shiite slum of Sadr City, located in eastern Baghdad.

Also, the U.S. military announced the death of a U.S. Marine who was killed Wednesday "due to enemy action" in the volatile Anbar province. The slain Marine was assigned to the 1st Marine Logistics Group.

Iraq Watch: March 7, 2006

Al-Jaafari Refuses to Vacate Second Term Push

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Despite a growing chorus of doubters, Iraqi Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Tuesday refused to give up on his bid for a second term.

One of al-Jaafari's most outspoken critics of late has been Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. On Monday Talabani attempted to call Iraqi parliament into session for the first time since parliamentary elections in order to force a showdown on the increasingly controversial and decisive issue. Members of al-Jaafari's Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) quickly shot down Talabani's proposition.

Tensions over al-Jaafari's proposed second term nomination have only increased, along with sectarian ire, following the February 22 bombing of the sacred Shiite al-Askariya shrine in Samarra.

As political wrangling continued, violence persisted throughout the country Tuesday.

On the outskirts of eastern Baghdad's dilapidated Shiite slum commonly known as Sadr City, a car bomb exploded near a restaurant killing at least three people and injuring three more.

In the volatile city of Baqouba, northeast of the capital, gunmen killed three workers at the local offices of maverick Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Iraqi security forces also came under attack Tuesday, a day after a sniper assassinated Maj. Gen. Mibder Hatim al-Dulaimi in western Baghdad.

Three Iraqi police officers were killed in the industrial city of Beiji after being ambushed by militants. In another incident in the city 155 miles north of Baghdad an Iraqi police colonel was slain.

Elsewhere, three Iraqi soldiers died in a car bombing in Khalis, a small town located some 50 miles north of the capital.

Meanwhile, the Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera broadcast a new video depicting three of the four kidnapped Christian peace-activists. The 25-second video, dated February 28, showed three of the activists – Canadians James Loney, Harmeet Singh Soode, and Briton Norman Kember – but Tom Fox, the American abducted with the group, was absent from the video.

The four employees of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) were taken hostage November 26 by the previously unknown "Swords of Righteousness Brigades."

Iraq Watch: March 6, 2006

Talabani Tries and Fails to Call Parliament Into Session

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani attempted Monday to convene Iraq's newly elected parliament to meet for the first time Sunday, March 12 but his bid was rejected by senior Iraqi politicians who refused to sign-off on the proposition.

Under Iraqi law, once parliament officially convenes politicians will have 60 days to select the prime minister, president, along with the cabinet.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's current prime minister, was nominated by the powerful Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) in mid-February to reclaim his position. The former Dawa party leader beat out current Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi by a slim one-vote margin.

Despite al-Jaafari's UIA backing the incumbent has come under fire from all sides as of late.

Some Shiites claim al-Jaafari has been to soft clamping down on predominately-Sunni insurgents while Sunnis accuse the prime minister of turning a blind eye to Shiite militias whom Sunnis accuse of terrorizing their populous in reprisal for militant attacks. Kurds, meanwhile, have been critical of al-Jaafari for delaying a resolution that would grant Kurds the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Despite al-Jaafari's detractors he still has his fair-share of supporters, most-notably maverick Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Seven senior UIA officials held an emergency meeting with President Talabani late Monday refusing the Kurdish president's demand to abandon their push for al-Jaafari's second-term nomination.

In violence Monday, a sniper assassinated Maj. Gen. Mibder Hatim al-Dulaimi in western Baghdad. Al-Dulaimi, who was in charge of Iraqi forces throughout the capital city, is one of the highest-ranking Iraqi security officials killed since the U.S.-led incursion into Iraq in March 2003.

In Baqouba, a restive city north of the capital, a car bomb went off as an Iraqi police patrol passed by killing at least six and injuring another 23.

Elsewhere, at least six people were killed and seven wounded in two separate car bomb attacks in Baghdad's southern Dora district.

In the southern city of Basra, two people – believed to be British citizens – were killed after getting into a firefight with Iraqi police. The incident, which also left another British citizen and two Iraqi security forces injured, occurred shortly after 9:00 p.m. in Basra's central Jazaer neighborhood.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the death of a U.S. soldier Monday. The soldier, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7, was killed "due to enemy action" Sunday in the volatile Anbar province.

Iraq Watch: March 3, 2006

Baghdad Car Ban Goes Into Effect

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A 6:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. vehicle ban went into effect Friday in Baghdad, quieting the oft-turbulent capital city, which has seen over a week of relentless sectarian violence and bloodshed following the February 22 bombing of the holy Shiite Askariya shrine, or "Golden Mosque," in Samarra.

Security forces and private militias set up security checkpoints as worshippers meandered to local mosques for traditional Friday prayers.

Many clerics urged unity between the two Muslim sects while others criticized the U.S.-led invasion for stirring up sectarian strife long suppressed under the dictatorial rule of former leader Saddam Hussein. Sunni cleric Ahmed Hassan al-Taha told his followers: "Iraqis were living in harmony until the occupiers and those who came with them arrived in this country. They are responsible for igniting sectarianism."

Hours before the intensive security measures were implemented militants assailed and destroyed a power station in Baghdad's Nahrawan suburb. An ensuing gunfight between the insurgents and Iraqi security forces left at least nine people dead and three injured.

Shortly after the sub-station attack guerillas stormed a brick factory in the nearby town of Maamil killing at least 10 Shiite laborers.

In the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, six Iraqi police officers were killed in two separate attacks according to the New York Times. Four policemen were shot to death while leaving a police academy while the other two died in a roadside bombing.

In further violence Friday, one person was killed and another wounded when a mortar slammed into an outdoor market in Mahmoudiya while authorities discovered two executed bodies near Iskandariyah, south of the capital.

Iraq Watch: March 1, 2006

Attacks Kill Nearly 50; Saddam Admits Guilt

BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than 45 Iraqis were killed in attacks around the country Wednesday as former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein admitted in his landmark trial that he personally signed the death warrants of 148 Shiites in 1984 after a failed 1982 assassination attempt against him in Dujail.

Hussein argued that his decision to have the perpetrators executed was legal, as they had been convicted in Iraq's 'Revolutionary Court' under the jurisdiction of then court official Awad al-Bandar - who is also currently on trial for his role in the Dujail incident. Saddam repeatedly asked the presiding judge, "Where is the crime? Where is the crime?"

Also during the course of Wednesday's session Saddam pleaded with Kurdish chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman to have the other seven co-defendants acquitted and released, stating: "If the chief figure makes thing easy for you by saying he was the one responsible, then why are you going after these people? A head of state is here. Try him and let the others go their way."

In continuing sectarian violence, stemming from the February 22 bombing of the sacred Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra, a car bomb near a traffic police station in southeastern Baghdad's al-Jadida neighborhood killed at least 29 people and wounded 67.

Earlier in the day six civilians were killed in a bombing in central Baghdad's Tahrir (Liberation) Square. The bomb, which also injured 17 Iraqis, was detonated as an Iraqi police patrol was passing by.

Mortar fire, meanwhile, left two people dead in Mahmoudiya, a religiously-mixed city located south of the capital in the infamous "Triangle of Death." Another mortar barrage killed a civilian in the Qadisiyah district of western Baghdad.

Also in western Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Shiite funeral procession killing two and wounding five.

Elsewhere, militants ambushed a police convoy carrying approximately 50 officers returning from training in Sulaimaniyah. At least five police officers were killed in the attack 45 miles northeast of Tikrit. Additionally, 11 officers were wounded in the ambuscade.

A separate guerilla ambush in Riyad, southwest of Kirkuk, resulted in the deaths of three Iraqi policemen.