Mortar Round, Bombs Kill 2 In Baghdad ( And So it Begins)

[lligrd]

Mortar round, bombs kill 2 in Baghdad 30 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two people were killed in the capital early Monday when a mortar round slammed into a central Baghdad neighborhood and a bomb hidden in trash exploded on the city's east side, police reported.

The deputy governor of Nineveh province was wounded along with three bodyguards when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad, said Hisham al-Hamdani, chief of the provincial security committee.

The central Baghdad mortar attack wounded six people in addition to the one fatality. In the bombing in eastern Baghdad, a bomb hidden in trash killed a passer-by and wounded three others. The bomb exploded 10 minutes after a roadside bomb missed its intended target, a police patrol, but wounded two civilians.

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[Eugene]

1. "gunmen wearing police uniforms and using police cars attacked an armored truck"

If the gunmen weren't policemen, they were militiamen working with the help of the police.
Nouri al-Maliki promises to secure Baghdad with forces like this?

[Eugene]

2. More on the Khalil al-Maliki incident in the article (Top Sadr official killed - Reuters)

Top Sadr official killed in U.S./Iraqi raid
05 Feb 2007 08:57:46 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Iraqi and U.S. forces killed a top official of radical
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's organisation in a raid on his home north of Baghdad
on Sunday, calling him a "rogue leader" of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

An official in Sadr's political office, Abdul-Mehdi al- Matiri, called the killing of
Khadim al-Maliki in the village of Huweidar near Baquba an "assassination".

The U.S. military said in a statement that Matiri had reportedly been responsible for
attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops and was believed to have "facilitated and directed
numerous kidnappings, assassinations and other violence".

They said two Iraqi soldiers shot him dead after storming a building and finding him
armed with an assault rifle and "displaying hostile intent".

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL529553.htm

[Eugene]

3. Reuters: Two car bombs kill 18 in Baghdad

Two car bombs kill 18 in Baghdad

Monday February 5, 10:56 AM

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two car bombs in separate neighbourhoods in Baghdad killed
18 people and wounded 102 on Monday, police said.

In the worst blast, a car bomb targeting a petrol station in the religiously mixed
neighbourhood of Saidiya in southern Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded 62.

The second blast in a vehicle workshop in central Baghdad killed eight people and
wounded 40, police said.

-snip-

Full article: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/05022007/325/car-bombs-kill-18-baghdad.html

The Reuters Factbox reports an additional car bombing:
FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Feb 5

[Massachusetts]

4. FUBAR

[Eugene]

5. AP: Bomb and Mortar Attacks in Iraq Kill 29

Bomb and Mortar Attacks in Iraq Kill 29


Monday February 5, 2007 2:01 PM

AP Photo BAG110, BAG112, BAG107, BAG108, BAG106

By SAMEER N. YACOUB

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Violence raked Baghdad Monday as an Iraqi general took charge
of the security operation in the capital and Iraqi police and soldiers manned new
roadblocks - initial steps indicating the start of the long-anticipated joint
operation with American forces to curb sectarian bloodshed.

At least 29 people died in bomb and mortar attacks across the city Monday, 15 of them
as they waited to refill propane cooking tanks when two car bombs blew up in quick
succession in south Baghdad.

The violence was a sign of the difficulty facing the push that eventually will be able
to call upon on as many as 90,000 American and Iraqi troops and police in a third
attempt to calm the capital in nine months.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6395145,00.html