Saturday: 27 Iraqis Killed, 29 Wounded

Updated at 12:08 p.m. EDT, May 24, 2008

At least 27 Iraqis were killed and 29 more were wounded in the latest violence. Sadrist officials warn that the cease fire between the Mahdi Army and the al-Maliki government is in danger if Iraqi security forces do not stop violating it and harassing Sadr followers. No Coalition deaths were reported.

Iraqi soldiers killed as many as one person and wounded three others when they fired at religious worshippers in Basra yesterday. Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had been told not to gather at Mile-5 Square because a weapons cache had been found nearby recently. The incident strains an already tenuous cease-fire. The Sadrists contend that the al-Maliki government is unfairly singling them out to undermine them in upcoming elections. Similar incidents occurred at other prayer services elsewhere. In a separate incident, gunmen killed the owner of a currency exchange office.

In Baghdad, a bomb attached to a bus killed three passengers and wounded six more in Mansour. Two people were wounded during a rocket blast near Adhamiya. Also, three dumped bodies were recovered.

An Iraqi army captain was killed and five soldiers were wounded during an attack on their base near Khanaqin.

In Husseiniyah, two gunmen were killed during a clash that erupted as security forces arrived to detain them on suspicion of killing a policeman.

U.S. troops, responding to an IED attack in Mosul, killed two civilians and wounded a child; six American soldiers were wounded. A local administrator survived an assassination attempt, but his driver and two policemen were wounded; this was the fourth attempt on his life in the last ten days. Two Iraqi soldiers were wounded during a roadside bombing outside of town. Four Iraqi soldiers were killed in an IED blast. Also, 108 detainees were freed after proving their innocence.

Two female bodies were found in Kirkuk. A bicycle bomb left no casualties.

Three family members were injured when a Katyusha rocket blasted their Jalawla home.

An Awakening Council (Sahwa) member was killed during an attack on Sahwa headquarters in Had Maksar.

Seven Marines and two Iraqi policemen were wounded during a bombing in Fallujah.

An attack on a Sahwa base in Buhriz left two members with wounds.

U.S. forces killed three al-Qaeda suspects and detained 17 others across Iraq.

Honor killings and suicides surged in May in Kurdish regions of Iraq.

A cab driver was shot dead when he failed to stop at a checkpoint in Arbil.

In Shohada, gunmen killed three members of the same family.

Compiled by Margaret Griffis