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Gunmen abduct 50 Iraqis; Bombing kills 9
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-09 19:35
Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry on
Wednesday stormed an Iraqi security company that relied heavily on Sunni
ex-military men from the Saddam regime, spiriting away 50 hostages. The ministry
denied involvement and called the operation a "terrorist act."
On Thursday, a roadside bombing targeting an Iraqi patrol killed at least
nine civilians and injured six, police said.
The blast missed an army patrol in Amariyah, a mostly Sunni neighborhood in
west Baghdad, according to Interior Ministry Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi.
Another bombing was aimed at a police patrol in Jihad, a mostly Sunni western
neighborhood, and injured three bystanders, said police Lt. Mohammed Kheyoun.
At least three other explosions were heard across the city, but police did
not immediately have reports on damage or casualties.
Meanwhile, police and the U.S. military reported finding the bodies of 24 men
garroted or shot in the head, most of them in an abandoned bus in a tough
Baghdad Sunni neighborhood.
They also reported the deaths of at least 15 others across Iraq, including a
U.S. soldier and two Marines.
The Sunni minority, which was dominant in the country under Saddam Hussein,
has complained bitterly that it is under attack from death squads associated
with the Interior Ministry, in charge of Iraq's police. And, over the past two
weeks 锟斤拷 since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra 锟斤拷 violence has become
increasingly sectarian. Nearly 600 people have been killed since Feb. 22.
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