Last week in Iraq
By TIMES WIRES
Published December 17, 2006
Attacks
- At least 83 people were killed or found dead throughout the country on Dec. 10, including 59 bullet-riddled bodies that turned up in different parts of the capital.
- At least 66 Iraqis were killed or found dead in the Baghdad area and northern Iraq on Monday.
- A suicide bomber struck a crowd of mostly poor Shiites in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 63 people and wounding more than 200 after luring construction workers to a pickup by offering them jobs. At least 59 other Iraqis were killed or found dead, including an AP Television News cameraman who was shot while covering clashes in Mosul.
- A round of car bombings and other violence struck Iraq on Wednesday, with 55 people killed or found dead.
- At least 74 people were killed or found dead in Iraq on Thursday, including 65 bodies bearing signs of torture. Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped as many as 70 shopkeepers and bystanders from a commercial area in central Baghdad in what was reportedly an attack against Sunnis; at least 25 were later released, police said.
- At least 34 people were killed or found dead Friday, including 22 bullet-riddled bodies discovered in several parts of Baghdad, likely the victims of sectarian death squads. In the southern city of Basra, gunmen killed a Shiite tribal sheik, Muhsin al-Kanan, who had good relations with British forces in the area.
Military
- Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld paid a surprise visit to Iraq last weekend and said American forces should not quit the war until the enemy is defeated.
- A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier west of Baghdad, the military said Dec. 10.
- A Marine helicopter made a hard landing Monday in a remote desert area of Anbar province, injuring 18 people, the U.S. military said. The military also announced that three soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad Dec. 10.
- The U.S. military on Tuesday reported the deaths of five troops, including three Marines killed in combat in Anbar province on Monday.
- In Baghdad, Sen. John McCain on Thursday called for the deployment of 15,000 to 30,000 more troops to Iraq. McCain's position puts him at odds with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which recommended withdrawing a substantial number of U.S. troops over the coming year.
- The Army's top general, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, said Thursday that the mission in Iraq "will break" the Army without an expansion of the active-duty force or the remobilization of the National Guard and Reserves.
- Rumsfeld bade farewell to the Pentagon on Friday with a defiant speech in which he warned against hoping for "graceful exits" from Iraq and said it would be wrong to regard the lack of new attacks on American soil as a sign that the nation is safe from terrorism.
- The U.S. military on Friday announced the deaths of three U.S. troops in fighting .
Rebuilding
- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Dec. 10 that the Iraq Study Group report offered dangerous recommendations that would undermine his country's sovereignty and were "an insult to the people of Iraq."
- After discussions with the Bush administration, several of Iraq's major political parties are in talks to form a coalition whose aim is to break the influence of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr within the government, the New York Times reported Monday.
- Departing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged the Bush administration Monday to shun go-it-alone diplomacy and remain committed to observing human rights as it acts to forestall terrorism.
- Faced with a growing list of recommendations and a range of contradictory policy options from key advisers, President Bush on Tuesday delayed a planned announcement about a new strategy for the war in Iraq until the new year.
- Bush on Wednesday said the enemy in Iraq is "far from being defeated," but he vowed not to be rushed into adjusting his strategy and gave little indication that he intends to veer sharply from the direction his policies have taken.
- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued his first public comment on the report by the Iraq Study Group. "The report should have read the events more accurately and turned them into a good base for a solution. Instead, it contained contradictions in vision and recommendations," Maliki said in an interview on the pan-Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya.
Deaths
As of Saturday, 2,945 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. Identifications as reported by the U.S. military and not previously published:
- Army Staff Sgt. Kristofer R. Ciraso, 26, Bangor, Maine; explosion Dec. 7; Baghdad.
- Army Staff Sgt. Thomas W. Clemons, 37, Leitchfield, Ky.; noncombat health-related incident Dec. 10; Diwaniyah.
- Marine Lance Cpl. Budd M. Cote, 21, Marana, Ariz.; Monday; Anbar province.
- Army Maj. Gloria D. Davis, 47, St. Louis; noncombat incident Tuesday; Baghdad.
- Marine Cpl. Matthew V. Dillon, 25, Aiken, S.C.; Monday; Anbar province.
- Army Sgt. Brent W. Dunkleberger, 29, New Bloomfield, Pa.; explosion Tuesday; Mosul.
- Army Sgt. Philip C. Ford, 21, Freeport, Texas; Dec. 10; Baghdad.
- Army Sgt. Brennan C. Gibson, 26, Tualatin, Ore.; Dec. 10; Baghdad.
- Army Spc. Micah S. Gifford, 27, Redding, Calif.; explosion Dec. 7; Baghdad.
- Marine 1st Lt. Nathan M. Krissoff, 25, Reno, Nev.; Dec. 9; Anbar province.
- Army Staff Sgt. Henry W. Linck, 23, Manhattan, Kan.; explosion Dec. 7; Baghdad.
- Marine Master Sgt. Brian P. McAnulty, 39, Vicksburg, Miss.; Monday; Anbar province.
- Marine Maj. Megan M. McClung, 34, Coupeville, Wash.; Dec. 6; Anbar province.
- Marine Lance Cpl. Clinton J. Miller, 23, Greenfield, Iowa; Monday; Anbar province.
- Army Pfc. Shawn M. Murphy, 24, Fort Bragg, N.C.; Dec. 10; Baghdad.
- Army Capt. Travis L. Patriquin, 32, St. Charles, Mo.; explosion Dec. 6; Ramadi.
- Marine Lance Cpl. Cody G. Watson, 21, Oxford, Ala.; noncombat incident Dec. 6; Anbar province.