Reuters AlertNet - FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, March 27
March 27 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1530 GMT on Thursday.
* BAGHDAD - Gunmen kidnapped Tahseen al-Sheikhli, a civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, designed to make the capital safer, from his home in Baghdad, police said.
* BAGHDAD - The Green Zone diplomatic and government compound in central Baghdad was hit by repeated rocket and mortar fire in some of the worst barrages in months.
* BAGHDAD - Shi’ite militants clashed with Iraqi security forces in Baghdad’s Washash, Iskan, Shurta, Hurriya, Kamiliya, Fudhailiya, Ur, Shula, Mashtal and Sadr City districts, Baghdad security plan spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said. Civilians and security force members had been killed or wounded, he said, but he gave no figures.
* BAGHDAD - Eight soldiers were wounded in clashes with Mehdi Army fighters in Talabiya in eastern Baghdad, police said.
BASRA - Fighting between Iraqi security forces and the Mehdi Army militia continued in Basra. A police source in Baghdad put the latest death toll at 51 people killed and 225 wounded since a major Iraqi military operation began on Tuesday.
KUT - At least 44 people have been killed, including four policemen, and 75 wounded in two-day clashes in the city of Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, said Abdul Hanin al-Imara, police chief of Wasit province.
BAGHDAD - Three people were killed and 15 wounded by a mortar attack on a bus terminal in central Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in the Sadr City district of northeastern Baghdad, wounding four soldiers, police said.
DAQUQ - Gunmen attacked an Iraqi army patrol in the town of Daquq, 45 km (30 miles) south of Kirkuk, killing four soldiers, police said.
AL-RIFAI - Gunmen attacked Iraqi troops heading to Basra, killing two soldiers in the town of al-Rifai, near Nassiriya, 375 km (235 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said.
KIRKUK - A car bomb killed two Kurdish Peshmerga security force members and wounded six, including two civilians, in the northern city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
MAHAWEEL - A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing four policemen and wounding four in the town of Mahaweel, 75 km (45 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
NEAR BAQUBA - The bodies of four men were found with gunshot wounds to the head in a village near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, a hospital source said.
BAGHDAD - The bodies of three people were found in Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
BAGHDAD - Thousands of supporters of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad to protest against a three-day-old crackdown against his followers in the southern city of Basra and to call for the downfall of the U.S.-backed government.
Reuters AlertNet - FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, March 27
Indexed under: Baquba, Basrah, Basrah "surge", Disputed Areas, Green Zone "Government", Green Zone Attacks, Hit, Kirkuk, Kut, mahaweel, Militia, Peshmerga, Reuters, Sadr City, Surge Failure, Wasit, Zubair