Sunday: 20 Iraqis Killed, 26 Wounded

Updated at 7:02 p.m. EDT, Sept. 7, 2008

At least 20 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 26 more were wounded in the latest reports. Hundreds more are ill in what may be a new cholera epidemic. Meanwhile, Baghdad suffered a number of small bomb attacks, and an accidental gas leak sickened several dozen in Karbala. No Coalition deaths were reported anywhere.

Cholera has taken the lives of six people in Babel and sickened another 200 people there. A boy has died in Missan province. Six more Iraqis, all in the greater Baghdad area, are ill as well. Cholera often spreads through unsanitary water supplies. Because of the war, Iraq has been unable to upgrade its waterworks properly. Last year at least two dozen Iraqis died and 4000 more were sickened by the disease.

In Baghdad, a pair of bombs wounded 11 people on Palestine Street. In Zayouna, three policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded. Two policemen were wounded by a bomb blast in Zaafaraniya. Also, three dead bodies were found.

In Mosul, three gunmen were killed as they tried to plant a bomb on a car; two bystanders were wounded. Two people were wounded during a shootout. A police officer working for the governate office was killed by a bomb planted under his car. Also, gunmen killed a policeman in Bashiqa.

A body was discovered in a tributary of the Euphrates River at Mussayab.

A bomb in Qayara wounded a military commander and two civilians.

Four Awakening Council members were kidnapped last night from a checkpoint in Garma. Three were found dead and one is still missing. A similar report testerday had two dead policemen and two kidnap victims. This might be the same report.

Gunmen killed a man at a taxi station in Kut.

Iraqi forces arrested 35 suspects across Iraq.

U.S. forces detained 10 suspects in northern and central Iraq.

Fifteen mortars were found south of Nasariya.

A weapons cache that included an unmanned reconnaissance plane was found in Basra.

An apparently accidental gas leak at a Karbala water plant sickened 52 workers. A hostage was freed and two kidnappers were arrested in a separate incident.

Meetings between central government officials and those from the Kurdish Autonomous Region over the situation in Khanaqin continue. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants Iraqi troops to take over security across Diyala province; however, Kurdish Peshmerga troops are already stationed in Kurdish areas of the province. Tensions between the groups rose when Iraqi troops attempted to force their way into Khanaqin instead of reaching an agreement with Peshmerga forces there.

Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno will take over command of U.S. forces in Iraq from General David Petraeus next week.

Also, leftover ordnance from the Iran-Iraq War killed four teenagers and wounded two others in Kermanshahr province in Iran.

Compiled by Margaret Griffis