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Iraq | |
56 Iraqis die in bombings, sectarian violence | |
2006-03-24 | |
At least 56 Iraqis died in violence on Thursday, including a car bombing that killed 25 people in the third major attack on a police lockup in three days. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit in BaghdadÂ’s central Karradah district, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen employed there, authorities said.
Elsewhere throughout the capital, two police were killed in gun battles with insurgents and two civilians – a private contractor and power plant employee – were gunned down in drive-by shootings. Fourteen more bodies were found in the continuing string of shadowy sectarian killings: six in the capital and eight brought in by US forces to a hospital in Fallujah, 65 kilometres west of Baghdad, police said. Back in the capital, a mortar round fell on a house wounding three civilians, police Lt Ziad Hassan said. Another civilian was seriously wounded by an Iraqi army patrol that was shooting in the air to clear traffic in the western neighbourhood of Yarmouk, police said. In a lightning operation, US and British forces on Thursday rescued three Western hostages held captive in Iraq for almost four months. The three aid workers from the Christian Peacemaker Teams – Canadians Harmeet Sooden, 32, and Jim Loney, 41, and Briton Norman Kember, 74 – were found together in a house in western Baghdad. They were bound, but the house was otherwise empty and not a shot was fired. The raid was put together in just three hours after US forces obtained information from a detainee about the location of the hostages, US-led coalition spokesman Major General Rick Lynch told reporters. Their US colleague Tom Fox, seized with them in Baghdad on November 26, was slain two weeks ago and his body found dumped in the city. | |
Posted by:Fred |
#2 From the Telegraph: A deal had been struck with a man detained the previous night who was one of the leaders of the kidnappers. He was allowed a telephone call to warn his henchmen to leave the kidnap house. When the troops moved in and found the prisoners alive, they also let him go as promised. |
Posted by: Inspector Clueso 2006-03-24 22:18 |
#1 The raid was put together in just three hours after US forces obtained information from a detainee about the location of the hostages I know they do a lot of raids these days, but that seems impressive to me, nonetheless. |
Posted by: trailing wife 2006-03-24 16:02 |