Gotta admit whoever is behind these attacks knows how to pick their targets for maximum effect..
Iraq Council Member Shot, Critically Hurt](Yahoo News: Latest and Breaking News, Headlines, Live Updates, and More)
Aquila al-Hashimi, a member of Iraq’s Governing Council, was shot and critically wounded Saturday in an assassination attempt outside her home in western Baghdad, police and doctors said.
Al-Hashimi was in critical condition with abdominal wounds, a doctor at al-Yarmouk hospital said on condition of anonymity. After surgery she was moved to an unspecified location in a convoy of American armored vehicles and military ambulances.
Three of her bodyguards also were injured, said Mohammed Abdul Ghany, a security official at the al-Yarmouk hospital.
Members of al-Hashimi’s security detail said the attack was carried out by men in two new SUVs. They fired rocket-propelled grenades that missed her car, then opened fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles. …
An Iraqi security official said al-Hashimi was brought to the hospital at about 10:30 a.m. and immediately was taken to surgery for a bullet wound in the left side of her abdomen.
She was then taken to an unknown location in a U.S. military ambulance while still unconscious, said the official, who would not give his name.
“We will catch those responsible for this vicious crime,” Ghany said.
Al-Hashimi is one of three women on the 25-member council. She was preparing to leave for New York as part of an Iraqi delegation that will attempt to assume Iraq’s seat at the U.N. General Assembly.
Al-Hashimi is a Shiite Muslim and a career diplomat who led the Iraqi delegation to a donors’ conference in New York this summer. She holds a degree in law and a doctorate in modern literature. …
U.S. troops have been trying to track down pro-Saddam fighters who have launched near-daily attacks on U.S. troops, including an ambush and gunbattle that killed three soldiers and wounded two on Thursday night near Tikrit.
U.S. tanks and armored fighting vehicles rumbled through Tikrit early Saturday in a show of force meant to discourage more attacks and flush out armed resistance.
“We took a tank company and a Bradley (armored vehicle) company,” Lt. Col. Steve Russell, the 1st Battalion commander of the 4th Infantry Division’s 22nd Infantry Regiment, told The Associated Press. “We wanted to send a message.”
Fifty-eight Iraqis were captured after the attacks on Thursday, described as some of the fiercest and best-planned resistance in months. U.S. troops seized a considerable number of weapons from a minivan fleeing the area, the military said.
During Saturday’s patrol, tanks swept through residential areas, occasionally dismounting to set up security points, to check cars and people leaving Tikrit after the city’s 11 p.m. curfew.
The patrol ended without incident.
“We wanted to make contact with the enemy,” Russell said. “If they want, we’ll surely oblige him.”