Saturday: 61 Iraqis, 3 GIs Killed; 40 Iraqis Injured

Updated at 1:35 a.m. EST, March 4, 2007

At least 61 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 40 were wounded during today’s attacks. Three American soldiers also lost their lives when a roadside bomb blasted their vehicle.

In coalition incidents, a U.S. air strike in Arab Jabour killed seven suspected al-Qaeda members. Two gunmen were killed in another air strike, this one near Taji. At Camp Cropper, a detainee died of injuries caused by other detainees. Also, a British vehicle was set ablaze when a roadside bomb blasted it, but no casualties were reported.

An American working for a private security company was reportedly killed and two others injured near Basra when they came across a roadside bomb.

In Baghdad, authorities reported that the body of a prominent journalist had been found in Wednesday. Lt. Col. Fadhil Rahim was killed in an ambush in the Adil neighborhood. A police commando was killed and another injured by a roadside bomb in the Saydiya neighborhood. A separate roadside bomb wounded three policemen and a civilian in southeast Baghdad. A third roadside bomb injured three more policemen; this one was in the Doura neighborhood. Also, ten bodies were found dumped in several neighborhoods.

A roadside bomb blasted a police convoy that was headed to Tikrit; three policemen were killed and three more injured.

In Yusufiya, six members of a Sunni family were slaughtered after receiving death threats over attending a reconciliation conference with Shi’ites.

A woman and her two children were blasted by a roadside bomb as they walked by it in Latifiya.

An unidentified body was discovered in Iskandariya. Mortars killed two and wounded four in a residential neighborhood.

In Kirkuk, journalist Talal Hashim Bairaqdar was kidnapped. Two bodies belonging to suspected Arab foreigners were found on a highway.

A woman and two men were killed by a roadside bomb on a highway near Diwaniya.

Six bodies were discovered scattered in farms near Baquba.

Near Khan Bani Saad, Iraqi troops killed three gunmen.

Three civilians and a police officer were killed in separate shootouts in Mosul. Two bodies were found east of the city.

Several people were wounded during an attack at a checkpoint in Fallujah.

Compiled by Margaret Griffis