10 Shia pilgrims slain: 12 killed in Iraq blasts, shooting
Sunday 30-05-2005
BAGHDAD: Two suicide car bombers detonated their vehicles close to a base manned by US and Iraqi troops near the northern town of Sinjar close to the Syrian border, killing at least five Iraqis and wounding dozens, hospital officials said.
Guerrillas also ambushed a car carrying Iraqi soldiers near Hilla, south of Baghdad, killing four and seriously wounding another, local police said.
Insurgents have sharply raised the level of violence over the past month, including a wave of suicide bombings.
… Insurgents said on Saturday they had killed a Japanese hostage seized in Iraq and posted footage on the Internet apparently showing his bloodied corpse.
In the Shia town of Diwaniya, residents said insurgents had killed 10 pilgrims returning from Syria. Sectarian tensions have been mounting in Iraq after a series of mass killings, with victims shot execution-style and their bodies dumped. Most of the victims have been Shias but increasingly in recent months groups of Sunnis have been killed.
… In the northwest, around 1,000 US and Iraqi troops continued their operation in the Euphrates Valley town of Haditha in a bid to root out insurgents loyal to Zarqawi who fled an earlier sweep near the Syrian border. A second marine was reported killed in the operation, in which 10 suspected militants, including a Muslim cleric, have also died, according to the US military. Gunmen have shot dead a former member of Kirkuk’s city council, Iraqi police said on Saturday, the latest killing of a local official in a city where tensions between Kurds and Arabs run high. agencies
More blood and gore as the Americans advertise their weapons in Iraq…