Dozens More Bodies Found in Baghdad
15 September 2006
Iraqi officials say security forces found dozens more bodies in Baghdad Friday, bringing the number of execution-style sectarian killings to more than 100 over the past three days.
The officials say many of the victims had been blindfolded and their arms and legs bound. Most had been shot in the head. Officials say the bodies also had signs of torture.
On Thursday, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Major-General William Caldwell, said there has been a sharp rise in violence in the Iraqi capital, mostly from what he describes as "murder-executions."
Caldwell says U.S. forces have detained more than 70 suspected terrorists during a month-long military operation aimed at restoring security in Baghdad neighborhoods.
One of those arrested is described as a personal assistant to the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Iraqi security officials say another top al-Qaida figure, Abu Jaafar al-Liby, and four other militants were killed during a security raid in Baghdad earlier this week.
Separately, the U.S. military says a Marine was killed today in Iraq's western Anbar province. The military also says an American soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast north of Baghdad late Thursday.
Earlier, a suicide car bomb attack west of the capital killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded 25 others. Three American soldiers were killed in separate combat operations in Iraq.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
