Prometheus 6

Old Tactic Returns as Gunmen Seize 13 Iraqis from Bus
By Joshua Partlow and Saad Sarhan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 25, 2007; A17

BAGHDAD, Dec. 24 -- Gunmen stopped a minibus driving north of Baghdad on Monday and abducted 13 Iraqi civilians inside, Iraqi police reported. The mass kidnapping was a renewed tactic that has grown increasingly rare as violence has ebbed in Iraq.

Two Bombs Hit Iraqi Cities Killing at Least 34
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 25, 2007; 1:57 PM

BAGHDAD, Dec. 25 -- Two bombs in separate Iraqi cities ripped through crowds of people Tuesday, causing some of the worst carnage in the country in recent weeks and revealing that -- despite the relative calm of recent months -- insurgent groups remain capable of devastating attacks.

The morning bombs detonated in two major cities north of the capital: Baiji, an oil refinery town, and Baqubah, a provincial capital where the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq remains lethal, even though it has lost some of its earlier dominance. The attacks, which killed at least 34 people and wounded as many as 100, prompted calls by Iraqi officials for more Iraqi soldiers and police in the northern provinces to quell the violence.

The more devastating attack occurred in Baiji, near a checkpoint outside a two-story housing complex for oil industry employees. The complex was guarded by members of the Facilities Protection Service, part of the Interior Ministry, and members of the local Sunni volunteer security force, one of the many groups increasingly targeted by insurgents after joining forces with the American military.

Turkey Says 150 Killed in Strikes on Rebel Kurds
By SEBNEM ARSU

ISTANBUL — Two Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq hit more than 200 targets and killed more than 150 rebels, the Turkish Army said Tuesday.

The air raids, on Dec. 16 and 22, were the first large scale assaults on Iraqi territory since the Turkish parliament approved a cross border operation in mid-October to curb rebel hideouts in Iraqi’s northern mountains.

Turkish officials have not commented reports by the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq that two more airstrikes took place on Monday and early Tuesday. But Turkish surveillance planes were spotted early Tuesday flying over Cukurca in the Hakkari Province of Turkey’s far southeast, along the border with Iraq, and also above the Kanimasi region in northern Iraq, and shelling was heard, the semi-official Anatolian news agency reported.