Dozens Killed in Iraq Attacks & At Least Seven Killed in Iraq Truck Convoy |


US soldiers in armoured vehicles secure the area of a car bomb in the predominantly Shiite Shula district in northern Baghdad. (Photo: AFP)

At least 33 Iraqis were killed in violence across Iraq that defied government and US efforts to stem a dogged insurgency.

The one-day death toll was the heaviest since the month of May, during which almost 700 Iraqis lost their lives.

Fourteen Iraqis died, half of them soldiers, in early morning car bomb attacks around the northern town of Hawijah in the latest major attack on Iraq's security forces.

The explosions occurred as officials hailed gains from Operation Lightning, a more than two-week-old sweep of the capital, but warned against complacency, saying the insurgency's demise would be a "slow death".

Three suicide bombers struck almost simultaneously, targeting army checkpoints on the northern, western and eastern entrances of the restive Sunni Arab town, 210 kilometres from Baghdad, police said.

The casualty toll from the attacks was 14 killed and 20 wounded said Dr Jasim Hamad, director of Hawijah's general hospital.

US forces sealed off what quickly became a virtual ghost town with Apache attack helicopters circling overhead, an AFP correspondent reported.

Nine people were killed in the northern city of Mosul, including four peshmerga militiamen reportedly shot dead by police after they were mistaken for insurgents and three students killed when unknown gunmen burst into their apartment.

One policeman died in a drive-by shooting in the city's industrial district and another in a mortar attack on his station in Tun Kubri, to the south.

North of Baghdad, four Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush and roadside bombing, while two bullet-riddled bodies were found on the banks of a nearby river.

Near the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, three civilians died and 13 were wounded in a mortar attack on a military base.

Inside the capital, an employee of the foreign ministry was killed in a drive-by shooting and a policeman was shot dead in the southern Aamel neighbourhood.

The body of a policeman bearing gunshot wounds was also discovered near the infamous Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.
The managing director of a state agency attached to the Ministry of Housing was also seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting that killed his driver, raising the overall death toll for the day to at least 33.

Baghdad, Iraq - A convoy of trucks believed to be carrying supplies to a U.S. military base west of Baghdad was ambushed Tuesday, and reporters who arrived after the attack said they saw the bodies of at least seven people.

The attack occurred in Habaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad and between the restive cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. The victims, all apparently Iraqi men in their 20s and 30s, were placed side by side in a ditch on the side of the road, the reporters said.

Several bullet-riddled trucks were on fire and bystanders, including young boys, were seen taking items from the trucks. As some at the scene of the attack tried to put out the fires, a group of heavily armed and masked men came to watch.

Hart Security Ltd., a Cyprus-based British security firm, announced that a convoy of trucks its employees were escorting had been "ambushed by insurgents" near Habaniyah.

"It has not been possible to confirm the whereabouts or safety of certain members of this convoy," said the announcement posted on its Web site.

U.S. diplomats and military officials confirmed the attack but gave no details. They said they were not aware of any Americans in the convoy.