Thursday: 120 Iraqis Killed, 179 Wounded; 3 GIs Dead, 1 Marine Killed

Updated 11:15 p.m. EDT, Oct. 19, 2006

Today, at least 120 Iraqis were killed and 179 more were wounded in ongoing violence. Three American soldiers were reported killed, one Marine died, and three more soldiers were injured.

A Marine died "from enemy action" in Anbar Province today. The U.S. military also reported that an American soldier died "from wounds sustained during enemy action" yesterday in Anbar Province. Another was killed in Baghdad when gunmen attacked his patrol on Wednesday, and an MP in Balad was killed by a roadside bomb blast. Also, this morning three U.S. soldiers were injured when a roadside bomb on Baghdad’s Al-Jomhouriya Street blasted their tank.

In Baghdad, 27 bodies were discovered in various parts of the city this morning. In the Ghandeer district, four people died and 13 were wounded after a booby-trapped car exploded. In the Doura district, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed three policemen and two civilians; nine civilians and three policemen were also wounded. Another roadside bomb and a car bomb in the New Baghdad area were used in an attack on a police patrol; one civilian died and five others were wounded, including a policeman. A pair of roadside bombs outside the Iraqi National Theatre in central Baghdad wounded two people. In a separate incident, gunmen attacked a police station, killing four policemen and wounding 10 civilians. Gunmen also killed an employee of the Ministry of Higher Education in downtown Baghdad. A bomb attack against a convoy in the Saydiyah neighborhood killed five people. Gunmen there also killed Colonel Basim Qasim and Brigadier General Kadhim Mahdi of the border police was assassinated.

In Mosul, a suicide bomber blew up a fuel truck, killing 13 and wounding 25 others at a police center and neighboring gas station; over 40 cars were reportedly destroyed. Rebels fired mortars at a different station shortly thereafter, killing nine. A car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy instead killed a civilian.

A roadside bomb killed four and wounded one other person in Kut. Police found seven tortured and shot bodies on a road outside town.

In Mahmudiya, several mortar rounds blasted a residential neighborhood, killing two and wounding three members of one family. Just outside of town, mortars fell on a separate village; two people were killed and four others wounded. Four bodies bearing gunshot wounds were also found in the city.

In Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber blew up his explosives at the entrance to the Al-Mansour Mosque as Iraqi soldiers were waiting to collect their salaries; 11 were killed and 60 others were wounded; among the dead were Colonel Abdul-Wahhab Aziz and his son. Separate roadside bombs targeting police patrols wounded four, including a civilian. A bomb at the the headquarters of the First Legion for Infrastructure took the lives of two Iraqi soldiers and injured four others. Also, an unknown number of gunmen were killed in a southern suburb.

Gunmen killed a man during an attack in the town of Diwaniya.

In the southern Maysan Province, eight were wounded in clashes between militiamen and police. The situation there is potentially explosive as retaliatory strikes and kidnappings follow the death of the head of intelligence for the Maysan provincial police force, Ali Qassim al-Tamimi.

Four Iraqis were killed, including two policemen, in clashes between police and rebels in Basra. Eight others were wounded, but 17 kidnap victims were freed.

At a busy market in Khalis, a roadside bomb blast killed 10 and injured 20 shoppers shortly before the Iftar, the meal that breaks the daily fasting during Ramadan.

In Baquba, three police officers were killed in clashes with gunmen.

Also an unspecified amount of militiamen were killed in clashes with security and tribal forces in Ramadi.

Compiled by Margaret Griffis