Security Incidents in Iraq August 27th

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HAM756220.htm


Security incidents in Iraq, Aug 27


BAGHDAD, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Following are security incidents reported in Iraq on Saturday, Aug. 27, as of 1500 GMT.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad.

An asterisk denotes a new or update item.

* QAIM - Two Sunni Arab tribes, one loyal to al Qaeda and the other to the government, clashed near Qaim in western Iraq on Friday and Saturday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens, local clerics and hospital officials said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said it had freed 1,000 detainees from Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison at the government's request, the largest release to date. It came after Sunni Arabs had asked for prisoners to be freed so they could participate in a constitutional referendum and elections. Sunni Muslims make up a large bulk of Iraq's prison population.

KIRKUK - An Iraqi army officer was assassinated by gunmen near his home in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said.

MOSUL - U.S forces killed two insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday including Abu Khallad, a Saudi national, who was believed to be a major facilitator of foreign fighters and suicide bombers to Iraq, the U.S military said.

KIRKUK - A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol near Kirkuk's University wounded six soldiers, five of them seriously, police captain Salam Zangana said.

(Reporting by Aref Mohammed in Kirkuk, Mussab Al-Khairalla and Michael Georgy in Baghdad)