Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
KIRKUK, Iraq, Aug 5, 2006 (AFP) - Iraqi insurgents gunned down five soldiers
and killed two police in a separate bomb attack Friday, as government forces
stepped up their campaign to regain control of a war-torn country.
Captain Mahmud al-Jiburi of the Kirkuk police told AFP gunmen had ambushed
an Iraqi army patrol in the town of Hawija, in the north of the country, and
killed five of them.
"This clash came after police captured 23 insurgents affiliated with Tawhid
wal Jihad and Ansar as-Sunna," he said, referring to two Sunni Muslim
extremist groups with ties to Al-Qaeda.
Further south in Khalis, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Bagdhad, a
roadside bomb killed two Iraqi police and wounded eight people, police said.
And in Baquba, a town just north of the capital notorious for sectarian
attacks by rival Sunni and Shiite extremists, three bombs detonated in a
crowded street market, wounding 10 people.
In the southern town of Amara the body of a policeman who was also a former
member of ousted president Saddam Hussein's Baath party was found floating
in the Tigris river with a bullet in the head, local police told AFP.
At least 11 more tortured corpses were found in and around the capital, in
what has become a grim daily harvest of the victims of rival death squads,
whose urban dirty war has pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out civil
conflict.
US and Iraqi forces are believed to be preparing a major push to win back
control of Baghdad from militias and insurgent gangs, and on Saturday their
headquarters reported the results of several security operations.
Defence ministry spokesman Ibrahim Shaker said in a statement that in the
preceding 24 hours government troops had shot dead two "terrorists" and
seized 63 suspects in raids across the country.
Meanwhile, the US air force announced that F-16 fighter jets had dropped
several 500 pound (227 kilo) GBU-12 laser-guided and GBU-38 satellite-guided
bombs on an insurgent position near Baghdad "achieving the intended
effects".
The air force gave no further details of the airstrike, part of a pattern of
such raids on the periphery of Baghdad in recent weeks.
Crowds from Iraq's Shiite community on Saturday continued to protest against
Israel's 25-day-old campaign against their co-religionists in Lebanon.
A 100-strong crowd rallied peacefully outside US and British consulates in
the mainly Shiite southern city of Basra, while another group marched to
government offices further north in Kut.
A British spokeswoman in Basra said: "They brought press with them and were
heard to demand the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, and said that the UK
and the US should pay for the damage (caused by Israeli bombing).
"The group dispersed after media interviews at around 11:30am," she said,
adding that Britain was "gravely concerned about the situation in Lebanon"
and had earmarked 6.2 million pounds (11.8 million dollars) for humanitarian
aid.
On Friday, hundreds of thousands of Shiites marched in Baghad in support of
Lebanon's Shiite militia Hezbollah. The rally was largely peaceful, but
three demonstrators were shot dead as they drove home through a Sunni
suburb.
Also on Friday, insurgent fighters blitzed the restive ethnically-mixed
northern city of Mosul with at least six bombs and a mortar barrage, killing
nine police and triggering a six-hour gunfight.
Mosul police said they killed a large number of insurgents in the battle.
and killed two police in a separate bomb attack Friday, as government forces
stepped up their campaign to regain control of a war-torn country.
Captain Mahmud al-Jiburi of the Kirkuk police told AFP gunmen had ambushed
an Iraqi army patrol in the town of Hawija, in the north of the country, and
killed five of them.
"This clash came after police captured 23 insurgents affiliated with Tawhid
wal Jihad and Ansar as-Sunna," he said, referring to two Sunni Muslim
extremist groups with ties to Al-Qaeda.
Further south in Khalis, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Bagdhad, a
roadside bomb killed two Iraqi police and wounded eight people, police said.
And in Baquba, a town just north of the capital notorious for sectarian
attacks by rival Sunni and Shiite extremists, three bombs detonated in a
crowded street market, wounding 10 people.
In the southern town of Amara the body of a policeman who was also a former
member of ousted president Saddam Hussein's Baath party was found floating
in the Tigris river with a bullet in the head, local police told AFP.
At least 11 more tortured corpses were found in and around the capital, in
what has become a grim daily harvest of the victims of rival death squads,
whose urban dirty war has pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out civil
conflict.
US and Iraqi forces are believed to be preparing a major push to win back
control of Baghdad from militias and insurgent gangs, and on Saturday their
headquarters reported the results of several security operations.
Defence ministry spokesman Ibrahim Shaker said in a statement that in the
preceding 24 hours government troops had shot dead two "terrorists" and
seized 63 suspects in raids across the country.
Meanwhile, the US air force announced that F-16 fighter jets had dropped
several 500 pound (227 kilo) GBU-12 laser-guided and GBU-38 satellite-guided
bombs on an insurgent position near Baghdad "achieving the intended
effects".
The air force gave no further details of the airstrike, part of a pattern of
such raids on the periphery of Baghdad in recent weeks.
Crowds from Iraq's Shiite community on Saturday continued to protest against
Israel's 25-day-old campaign against their co-religionists in Lebanon.
A 100-strong crowd rallied peacefully outside US and British consulates in
the mainly Shiite southern city of Basra, while another group marched to
government offices further north in Kut.
A British spokeswoman in Basra said: "They brought press with them and were
heard to demand the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, and said that the UK
and the US should pay for the damage (caused by Israeli bombing).
"The group dispersed after media interviews at around 11:30am," she said,
adding that Britain was "gravely concerned about the situation in Lebanon"
and had earmarked 6.2 million pounds (11.8 million dollars) for humanitarian
aid.
On Friday, hundreds of thousands of Shiites marched in Baghad in support of
Lebanon's Shiite militia Hezbollah. The rally was largely peaceful, but
three demonstrators were shot dead as they drove home through a Sunni
suburb.
Also on Friday, insurgent fighters blitzed the restive ethnically-mixed
northern city of Mosul with at least six bombs and a mortar barrage, killing
nine police and triggering a six-hour gunfight.
Mosul police said they killed a large number of insurgents in the battle.