28 Killed, 88 Wounded in Iraq on Sunday
Ash-Sharq al-Awsat estimates that bombings, drive-by shootings and other acts of guerrilla violence took 28 lives in Iraq on this weekend, and left more than 88 wounded.
A car bomb outside a US base killed nine Iraqis and wounded 30; 3 US troops were among the wounded. Mahdi Army insurgents in East Baghdad attacked police stations on Sunday. In one instance they took the station, commanded the police to depart, and then planted explosions and blew the station up. This tactic was a new development in the ‘war of the police stations’ that has been being fought for the past two months.
13 were killed and 10 wounded in a car bomb blast at a police station at Musayyab on Saturday. Guerrillas using explosives and small arms fire virtually destroyed the police station.
There were also explosions near Kirkuk, in Taji, and in Kut (the latter accidental).
Also, four Blackwell USA private security guards were killed in an attack near the airport by guerrillas. Threse security guards got away.
Because the security guards, who are most often former soldiers, are dressed in civilian clothing and drive civilian vehicles, and because the guerrillas consider them prime targets, they have come to endanger a lot of ordinary Westerners in Iraq. Guerrillas often attack the latter thinking they are the former. They whole idea of using hundreds or thousands of private security guards (some would say mercenaries) in Iraq should be rethought.