Updated at 6:44 p.m. EST, Dec. 22, 2007
At least 14 Iraqis
were killed or found dead and 22 more were wounded in the latest round of
violence. Also, a pair of IEDs killed
one MND-North soldier and wounded 11 more in Kirkuk. Meanwhile, U.S. troops
left a base in Fallujah and arrested an wanted man from the Saddam regime in Hawija.
In Baghdad, a suicide
bomber attacked a Ghazaliya checkpoint, killing
four people and wounding six more. A police
officer was killed and two more were injured during security operations. In
the Jamiya neighborhood, an Awakening
Council member was gunned down as he was leaving a mosque. And, two
unidentified bodies were recovered.
Also in the capital, U.S. forces
arrested
a man believed to be an al-Qaeda "technical advisor." Meanwhile, a joint
U.S.-Iraqi team raided Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi's Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP)
al-Karkh headquarters. No
casualties were reported, but the troops ransacked the building.
Police
and gunmen clashed in Daqquq. Two
gunmen were killed and one more was wounded. Two
policemen were also wounded during the battle. An arms cache was found
in a separate incident.
A pair of roadside bombs in Sinjar killed
one policeman and wounded two others.
Five
civilians were wounded during a bombing outside a Madaen hospital.
Witnesses saw U.S. troops fire upon a vehicle in Amiriyat al-Fallujah.
The driver
was killed and his companion was wounded. Troops then searched the vehicle.
A body
belonging to a security guard, who worked for the minister of state for national
security, was found in Iskandariya. Also, a police
commando was gunned down, but his assailants were arrested.
Three
family members were injured as mortar shelling severely damaged their home
in Khalis.
An assistant to a former vice-president from the Saddam
regime was arrested
in Hawija.
In Fallujah, U.S. troops abandoned
their base and reopened the streets of the Dubbat neighborhood to traffic.
Also, Turkish planes again bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel locations
in northern Iraq. No
word on casualties.
Because of the combined Eid al-Adha and Christmas
holidays, newspapers in Iraq have ceased
publication until next Wednesday. News from the country may be scant
until then.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis