BAGHDAD, March 2: Attacks across Iraq killed 31 people and wounded scores more in renewed violence on Thursday. In a statement the US military claimed it had captured 61 guerillas linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq’s frontman Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
In one of the bloodiest attacks, five people were killed and eight wounded when a car bomb went off in Sadr City district of Baghdad, a security official said.
“A car loaded with explosives was parked not far from a market in Sadr City,” the official added.
In another attack in Baghdad, four people were killed and 11 wounded, mostly women, when a bomb exploded in a market in the mixed southeastern Jaafaraniya district, an interior ministry official said.
A police commando was killed and two wounded in the western Jihad district when a roadside bomb exploded next to their patrol, the official added.
The bodyguard of a Sunni political leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, died and five others were wounded when their cars came under fire in the west of the capital. Dulaimi was not present during the attack.
In Khales, north of Baghdad, two Iraqis were killed and one was wounded Thursday in a roadside bomb blast. In Baquba, to the northeast, two more people died, including a policeman, and six were wounded in a series of attacks.
Further north near Tikrit, gunmen killed seven Iraqi soldiers and four policemen at a checkpoint early Thursday, a police officer from Tikrit said.
In Mosul, four policemen were gunned down as they drove away from a police academy in the centre of the city.
In southern Iraq, a Sunni scholar was killed near the port city of Basra.
US CLAIM: US military spokesman Major-General Rick Lynch said US forces detained 61 guerillas linked to Zarqawi near Fallujah, in western Iraq.
The rebels were apprehended on Monday during a raid on a rebel bomb-making and training base, he said.
“In an area 30 miles (20 kilometres) northeast of Fallujah, coalition forces had intelligence of an Al-Qaeda in Iraq facility used for training and bomb-making,” Gen Lynch said.
“Detailed planning and execution led to the apprehension of 61 members of Zarqawi’s network in Iraq.”
The US military separately announced that another 10 rebels had been detained after raids in Hubbaniya, near Fallujah, on Thursday.—AFP
