Thursday: 199 Iraqis Killed; 293 Wounded

Updated at 1:51 a.m. EST, Mar. 30, 2007

At least 199 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 293 were wounded in various attacks. The biggest incidents were a series of simultaneous bombs in Khalis that killed at least 53 people, and a bombing at a Baghdad marketplace that killed 76 others. No foreign deaths were reported.

Multiple, coordinated car bombs killed about 53 people and injured 103 more in the northern Shi'ite city of Khalis.

In Baghdad, two suicide bombers killed 76 people, many women and children in a Shaab area marketplace; over 100 were also wounded. A bomb killed ten people and 20 others in the Bayaa district. Three soldiers were wounded during a roadside bomb explosion in Ghazaliya. Three people were killed and 10 wounded during a car bombing in the Amil neighborhood. In Jamiya, another car bomb killed three and wounded 16 others. Four policemen and one civilian were killed, nine police were wounded, when a suspicious car they were examining in Jihad blew up.

In a northern part of the capital, gunmen attacked the head of the traffic police, Jaafar al-Khafaji; two traffic cops were killed and two others in his motorcade were wounded. A guard working for Ahmad Chalabi was killed in the Mansour district. In Shabab, gunmen fired on a crowd, killing one person and wounding three more. A Katyusha rocket fell in Sadr City and a mortar round fell on the airport, but neither caused any injuries. A senior academic at Mustansiriyah University was kidnapped. Also, 25 dumped bodies were recovered in several neighborhoods.

During a raid on a home in Mosul, U.S. forces killed a man and three sons who had fired upon them; two other sons were arrested. Police arrested a suspected al-Qaeda cell leader. Iman Nawaf al-Hadadi was killed in a drive-by shooting.

At least four people were killed and 20 others wounded when a car bomb was detonated in a Mahmudiya parking lot. Mortars fell in a residential district where they killed two people and wounded seven more. Gunmen killed an eye doctor as he was heading to work.

The deputy governor of Kirkuk, Ali Abid, escaped injury during an assassination attempt yesterday; today, it was reported that three of his guards were wounded in the attack.

A police officer was gunned down near his home in Diwaniya. A woman was kidnapped on Wednesday. The body of another kidnap victim was recovered.

Fourteen suspects were arrested in Hilla.

A policeman was gunned down east of Mosul in the Souk al-Armal area.

British forces in Basra came under small arms fire in the neighborhood surrounding the Iranian embassy. The troops and gunmen clashed while a security crackdown was instituted in the area. The embassy was not the target of the operations. Meanwhile, 15 British troops detained by Iran last Friday are still in Iranian custody.

At least five other people were killed by gunmen in either Baghdad or Mosul.

Compiled by Margaret Griffis