Today in Iraq

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, September 28, 2006 Photo: Iraq policeman rides past a burning car bomb in front of the Ibn Taymiyah mosque in west Baghdad Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006. Four Iraqi policemen were injured in the blast, Iraqi police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) Iraqi police and hospital officials said a woman and two children were among five people killed in an air strike on a car on Thursday, but the U.S. military said it was unaware of any such incident. Captain Ahmed Ali of the Jazeera police station in Ramadi, a bastion of the Sunni insurgency, said the bodies of two men, two children and a woman had been recovered at the scene, in the Albu Ubeid area, 10 km (six miles) northeast of the city. Raed Mohammed, a doctor at a local clinic, also said he saw the five bodies. Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, is the capital of Anbar province. (update from 9-27-06 Baqubah) American troops killed eight people, four of them women, after taking heavy fire during a raid on a suspected terrorist's house northeast of Baghdad yesterday, the U.S. command said. But relatives of those killed disputed the U.S. account, saying their family had nothing to do with any terrorist group. "This is an ugly criminal act by the U.S. soldiers against Iraqi citizens," said Manal Jassim, who lost her parents and other relatives in the attack, told Associated Press Television News. The country's major Sunni clerical organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, condemned the attack as a "terrorist massacre." (Update from 9-27-06 Samawah) Australian soldiers in southern Iraq were pinned down for at least an hour in a fierce firefight with insurgents two days ago, the Department of Defence has confirmed. The incident occurred when members of the Australian Army's Overwatch Battle Group (West) were meeting Iraqi army personnel at an Iraqi army barracks in Al Rumaythah in the Al Muthanna province. "The attack lasted almost an hour and appeared to be well co-ordinated, including rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire," the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston, said last night. "The Australian soldiers withdrew from the area - under considerable fire - without loss of life, injury or serious damage to equipment and vehicles." OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: The bodies of 40 men who were shot and had their hands and feet bound have been found in the capital over the past 24 hours, police said Thursday. All the victims showed signs of torture, police Lt. Thayer Mahmoud said. They were dumped in several neighborhoods in both eastern and western Baghdad, he said.

Baghdad police found 60 bodies -- all showing signs of torture --dumped around the capital in a 24-hour period ending Thursday morning.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured in suicide car bombing in a part of Baghdad where American and Iraqi troops had just conducted a security sweep. The car slammed into a checkpoint in the northeastern neighborhood of Shaab, a neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad that had just been cleared by troops taking part in Operation Together Forward. A car bomb killed five people and wounded another 34 after it exploded near a restaurant in central Baghdad. The noon exploded at noon near Abu Tibeekh restaurant in Sadoun Street in central Baghdad. Although Ramadan began last week, some Iraqis - including Iraqi Christians - are not fasting. Many of the injured had serious burns and some were not expected to survive. A child was killed in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora when a mortar shell landed on a house. Seven policemen and three Iraqi Interior Ministry special forces were injured in three different bomb attacks in the capital. Two civilians were wounded on Thursday when two mortar shells hit an area near a police station in Bataween in Baghdad. A National Police patrol was targeted with a roadside bomb on the main city highway in east Baghdad that wounded three policemen. A car bomb and then another kind of makeshift explosive hit a police patrol in west Baghdad's Yarmuk neighborhood, wounding four policeman. At least one police officer died and four civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in central Baghdad. A car bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded eight others in Sha'ab, a middle-class neighborhood in Baghdad. Four civilians also were injured.

A number of other bombs went off in Baghdad Thursday morning, without any fatalities, however. A car bomb went off in the Bayaa district in southwest Baghdad in a used car lot, wounding two people, followed by a second blast nearby an hour later, wounding eight more.

Mortar rounds landed on a residential district in the southern outskirts of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding four others. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed a civilian in al-Tahariyat square in central Baghdad. Several mortar rounds hit Bayaa district, wounding three people. A car bomb exploded but caused no casualties in Qadissiya district in southwestern Baghdad. A shootout between Iraqi soldiers and a truckload of gunmen resulted in the death of six militants southwest of Baghdad. A car bomb targeting a police patrol wounded four policemen in the southern Doura district of Baghdad. Suwayra: Nine bodies were recovered from the Tigris river at Suwayra, 45 km (30 miles) downstream of Baghdad, police said. Numaniya: A bomb planted inside the house of a policeman wounded a passer by in the small town of Numaniya, 120 km (75 miles) south of Baghdad. Baqubah: Three officers and his brother were killed in the city of Baqouba. Two shopkeepers, a fruit seller, a day laborer and a policeman were shot dead in separate incidents in the Baquba. Muqdadiya: U.S. forces killed an insurgent and wounded another on Wednesday while they were trying to plant a bomb near Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. Two police and a woman were killed in Muqdadiyah. The two policemen were brothers. A policeman was killed and his brother wounded when gunmen riddled their car with bullets in Muqdadiyah, in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, Balad: Police retrieved the body of a man from the Ishaqi river in Balad, 80 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, local authorities said. The man was an employee in a fuel station and was kidnapped on Wednesday. Gunmen killed a man in Balad, local authorities said. Samarra: Two fuel tankers were hit with roadside bombs and blew up southwest of Samarra. Police initially said the attack had been on an oil pipeline. Mosul: Captain Fathi Ahmed of the traffic police in the northern city of Mosul died of wounds after being shot. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded two policemen in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. Police found the body of a man shot dead in Mosul. Gunmen killed a man in Mosul. Kirkuk: A roadside bomb targeted police commander Brigadier Serhat Qadir, wounding one of his guards in the main road between Rashad town and Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad. Qadir was unharmed. Police director of Alqdiya and Kirkuk districts Brigadier Sarhad Qader survived an assassination attempt when an explosive device targeted his motorcade was detonated Thursday. Qader told KUNA, the bomb blasted around noon as he was returning to central Kirkuk with a Multi-National Forces (MNF) patrol car. One of the patrolmen was injured when his car was hit, he added.

The Brigadier also revealed that an attempt to bomb MNF building with a suicide bomber was foiled today. The suicide bomber was shot by a MNF guardsman before he was able to detonate the booby-trapped car outside the building.

A suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint near the U.S. military base at Kirkuk airport, killing one policeman and badly wounding eight. Hawija: U.S. forces killed two insurgents when they received arms fire from a truck attempting to ram the gate of a U.S. military base near Hawija, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of Kirkuk. >> NEWS The new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq said in an audio message posted on a Web site Thursday that more than 4,000 foreign insurgent fighters have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. It was believed to be the first major statement from insurgents in Iraq about their losses. "The blood has been spilled in Iraq of more than 4,000 foreigners who came to fight," said the man, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir _ also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri _ the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. The voice could not be independently identified. >> REPORTS Some 80,000 Iraqis have fled their homes and registered with the government as refugees over the past two months, data showed on Thursday, taking the total in seven months of sectarian violence to a quarter of a million. Iraq's most important moneymaker - its oil industry - lost $16 billion in two years to insurgent attacks, criminals and bad equipment, a secret U.S. audit says. In addition to the estimated $16 billion export revenue lost between January 2004 and March 2006, Bowen said Iraq also is paying billions of dollar to import refined petroleum products it needs. U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials have released the airpower summary for Sept. 27. In Iraq, Air Force F-16s provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Al Iskandariyah and Balad. Navy F/A-18Fs provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces Baghdad. In total, coalition aircraft flew 45 close-air support missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom. These missions included support to coalition troops, infrastructure protection, reconstruction activities and operations to deter and disrupt terrorist activities. Additionally, 16 Air Force, Navy, Army and Royal Air Force ISR aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Iraq. Air Force fighter aircraft performed in non-traditional ISR roles with their electro-optical and infrared sensors. Air Force C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster IIIs provided intra-theater heavy airlift support, helping sustain operations throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa. They flew 130 airlift sorties, delivered 370 tons of cargo and transported 3,050 passengers. Coalition C-130 crews from Australia and Japan flew in support of OIF or OEF. On Sept. 25, Air Force and RAF tankers flew 34 sorties and off-loaded more than 2.3 million pounds of fuel. POLL: IRAQIS BACK ATTACKS ON U.S. TROOPS About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, according to a poll in that country. The Iraqis also have negative views of Osama bin Laden, according to the early September poll of 1,150. The poll, done for University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, found: _Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents. _About 61 percent approved of the attacks — up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks, according to the poll. The increase came mostly among Shiite Iraqis. _An overwhelmingly negative opinion of terror chief bin Laden and more than half, 57 percent, disapproving of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. _Three-fourths say they think the United States plans to keep military bases in Iraq permanently. _A majority of Iraqis, 72 percent, say they think Iraq will be one state five years from now. Shiite Iraqis were most likely to feel that way, though a majority of Sunnis and Kurds also believed that would be the case. The PIPA poll, which included an oversample of 150 Sunni Iraqis, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The State Department, meanwhile, has also conducted its own poll, something it does periodically, spokesman Sean McCormack said. The State Department poll found that two-thirds of Iraqis in Baghdad favor an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces, according to The Washington Post. McCormack declined to discuss details of the department's Iraq poll. read in full… QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If you hate America, despise the Pentagon and want to see the U.S. war machine humbled in Iraq and Afghanistan, then you have to love what the Cheney Administration and its most obedient servants in Congress are doing to the Army. So what the hell was Chavez complaining about? These guys may be the most effective anti-imperialists on the planet." -- from "Help Is on the Way" by Billmon