Iraq Watch: May 29, 2006

Spasm of Violence Leaves Nearly 40 Dead in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A surge in violence across Iraq on Monday left some 40 people dead, including two CBS News employees who were slain in a Baghdad car bombing.

The CBS News crewmembers were killed while on assignment with the U.S. military in Baghdad. The CBS News crew was filming a piece in the capital's central Karada district when a car bomb exploded. The powerful blast killed cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan along with a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter. The blast also left veteran CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier in critical condition and six U.S. soldiers wounded.

Elsewhere, 10 Iraqis were killed when a roadside bomb hit a bus carrying members of the Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK) near Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad. Additionally, 12 members of the group – composed of Iranian dissidents – were injured in the blast.

Two car bombs rocked Baghdad's Azamiyah district, meanwhile, killing at least 11 Iraqis and wounding over 45. One of the bombs detonated near the prominent Sunni Abu Hanifa mosque while the other exploded near a local university. Azamiyah, a frequent scene of violence and bloodletting, is a predominately Sunni enclave located in northern Baghdad.

Another car bomb detonated near an outdoor market in the northern Baghdad district of Kazimiyah, killing at least seven civilians and injuring over 20.

In attacks against Iraq's fledgling security forces, gunmen killed two police officers in western Baghdad and two more in Amarah, southeast of the capital. Also, a roadside bomb killed two policemen and injured three others in Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Britain's MoD announced the deaths of two British soldiers Monday. The two soldiers, assigned to the Queen's Dragoon Guards, were killed yesterday by an IED in the southern city of Basra.