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.