18 Sunnis killed south of Baghdad
Updated: 2007-11-22 23:27
BAGHDAD - Suspected al-Qaida fighters killed two Iraqi soldiers early Thursday, then used their Humvees to kill at least 18 rival Sunnis south of Baghdad, police said, a brazen example of the challenges still facing Iraqis despite a lull in violence.
|
|
Several Iraqi refugees, meanwhile, returned home to the capital from Syria, saying they felt confident about the dramatic drop in the level of sectarian attacks.
"Thanks to be for God that we arrived here today. We have learned that the security situation improved and we hope all Iraqis will get back to Iraq," Muhanad Ibrahim said as he arrived in the western neighborhood of Mansour.
Nationwide, the US military maintains attacks have fallen 55 percent since a troop buildup over the summer because stepped up American military operations have driven Sunni and Shiite extremists from most of their longtime strongholds around the city.
Nevertheless, US commanders have been careful to avoid declaring victory over al-Qaida in Iraq and other extremist organizations, acknowledging militants have fled the security crackdowns to other parts of Iraq.
The attack by the al-Qaida fighters south of Baghdad began when they attacked an Iraqi army patrol near the rural area of Hor Rijab, killing two soldiers and commandeering two Humvees, according to a local police report.
The militants then drove in the Humvees to the nearby headquarters of a group of Sunnis who have turned against the terror network and formed a so-called Awakening Council. Fierce clashes broke out and the police said at least 18 Awakening Council members were killed.
Associated Press Television News footage showed Iraqi police and soldiers forming a protective cordon around wailing women and children as they loaded wooden coffins onto the cars for funeral processions of those killed.
Northeast of the capital, Iraqi security forces killed 19 al-Qaida fighters in Baqouba, police said, adding that two civilians also died and two others were wounded in the crossfire.
The US military has claimed a large measure of success in quelling the violence in Baqouba, which was an al-Qaida stronghold some 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. But pockets of resistance remain there and elsewhere, underlining fears about the fragility of security gains made in recent months with the influx of troops and the swelling of popular movements against extremists.
In another example, a suicide car bomber blasted a police checkpoint outside a courthouse on Wednesday, killing up to six people and wounding as many as 22 in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province and the site of the genesis of the anti-al-Qaida sentiment among Sunni tribal leaders and even some former insurgents.
Iraqi security forces also found 40 decomposed bodies on Wednesday, including women and children, north of Ramadi near Lake Tharthar in an area controlled until recently by al-Qaida in Iraq.
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|