45 Dead in Continued Guerrilla War
Baghdad Pitched Battle Kills 24
AFP reports that violence in Iraq on Sunday left 45 dead in separate incidents.
The biggest incident involved an ambush about 15 miles from Baghdad. Details are sketchy, but it resulted in a firefight between US troops and local guerrillas, with 24 of the latter being killed and 6 US troops wounded. This battle sounds fairly major, but it is unclear exactly where it happened or who the guerrillas were exactly. That they can still field 24 at a time, even if they were killed, is not a good sign.
As for the other violent incidents, some of them are described by AFP:
‘In . . . Mosul, a suicide bomber with a fake badge slipped Sunday into a building housing the provincial anti-corruption department and blew himself up inside the office of its chief, General Walid Kachmoula, killing him and two of his guards. Attackers struck again hours later opening fire on the procession bearing Kachmoula’s coffin . . . killing two people and wounding 14 . . . [G]unmen attacked a police station in Baquba killing at least four police and wounding two as a truck bomb rammed into the entrance of an Iraqi army barrack wounding 17 people, a police official said. Four insurgents were killed in an ensuing firefight. ‘