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| Iraq |
| 9 killed in Iraqi violence |
| 2006-03-26 |
| As violence continued to plague Iraq on Saturday, two U.S. senators visited the country and asked leaders to overcome political obstacles and form a long-awaited national unity government. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, was joined by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, as he said that he was "guardedly optimistic" that Iraqi leaders could form a government "within weeks." "I come away with the impression that the Iraqi leaders understand the sense of urgency that we have conveyed to them," McCain said. "We all know the polls show declining support amongst the American people, and we feel that it would be important to have a government, not only for American public opinion, but for the Iraqi people to have a government they can identify with and rely on." Earlier in the day, nine people were killed in a trio of attacks that included the fatal shooting of a Sunni imam who was driving in Baghdad, police said. Sheikh Abed Farhan was imam of the Aqtab Arba'a mosque in the Bayaa neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad. South of Baghdad, in the Babil province town of Mahmoudiya, four people were killed and 13 others were wounded when six mortar rounds crashed into a residential neighborhood. In southeast Baghdad's al-Waziriya neighborhood, a bomb hidden inside a booth used by traffic police killed four people when it exploded as a minibus passed, police said. Two others were wounded in the blast. On Friday night, six bodies were found -- apparently tortured and strangled -- inside a parked car in the al-Khadraa section of western Baghdad, city police said. A seventh unidentified body was found Saturday morning in the Saydiya neighborhood of southwest Baghdad, police said. The victim appeared to have been tortured and shot in the head. Saturday's violence came a day after a bombing outside a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad. Worshippers were leaving midday prayers when the blast went off, killing five people and wounding 17, police said. # U.S. and Iraqi soldiers on Friday detained 52 suspected insurgents in eight villages in and around Hawiya as part of Operation Scorpion, the U.S. military said Saturday. The city is near Kirkuk. Iraqi soldiers said that "24 out of the 52 detainees were on their target list, built from their own intelligence gathering." The other detainees were being held for questioning. The operation has since ended. # In a supporting operation, U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted raids for suspected terrorists in Kirkuk, They detained six and discovered a weapons cache, the military said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |