Gun Battles in Iraq: Kill 100s with 10 US Soldiers
'Pakistan Times' Monitoring Desk

BAGHDAD (Iraq): Roadside bombings and gun battles across Iraq killed 100s of people including 10 U.S. soldiers across Iraq on Wednesday.

Initial reports had put the death toll at 90 killed with several others injured – most of them in serious condition.

A latest story, quoting officials from Baghdad says that roadside bombings and gun battles also killed nine U.S. servicemen.

Meanwhile, the U.S. authorities were examining a body found in the Euphrates that Iraqi police believe was one of three U.S. soldiers seized in an ambush nearly two weeks ago.

Also Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew up a cafe frequented by police east of Baghdad, killing 22 people, and another bomber attacked two brothers who were part of an anti-al Qaida alliance, killing 10 people, police said.

Six of the soldiers who died Tuesday were killed by roadside bombs and the seventh was felled by small arms fire. The military said only that the two Marines were killed in combat operations in Anbar province.

Violence continued to plague the country Wednesday. In the town of Mandali, on the Iranian border 100 kilometers (60miles) east of Baghdad, a suicide bomber walked into a packed market café and blew himself up, killing 22 people and wounding 13 others, police said.

Two mortar rounds slammed into Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Karradah, killing six people and wounding more than a dozen others, police said. One shell hit a house, while another exploded in a residential area near the national theatre, police said.

Gunmen drove into a commercial area in central Baghdad and opened fire on shops, killing four civilians and injuring 14 others, police said. The attack broke out about 10:30 a.m. in the Khulani neighborhood near a historic mosque. A joint patrol of U.S. troops and Iraqi security officers drove off the attackers, police said.

Car Bomb

Also Wednesday, a parked car bomb exploded in a parking lot in the town of Jbala, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) south of Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding 15 others, police said.

In a car explosion in a Baghdad market this morning killed 25 people 25 people were killed and 60 others were wounded.

In the turbulent city of Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles)northwest of Baghdad, a roadside bomb hit a car carrying two Kurdistan Democratic Party officials, killing both men and one bystander, police said. A third KDP official was killed in a drive-by-shooting in Zumar, 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Mosul, police said.

Meanwhile police have found 38 unidentified bodies from two localities of Baghdad and Kut town.

US forces killed two gunmen and discovered a large amount of Iranian currency and bomb-making materials in a raid on the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City on Wednesday.

US troops searched 11 buildings during the raid in search of a cell involved in importing weapons from Iran into Baghdad and southeastern Iraq.

"As they continued to search the buildings, coalition forces found a large quantity of Iranian money, more than 6,000 dollars in US money and improvised explosive device-making materials," said the statement.

During the search US forces came under attack from four gunmen and confirmed killing two of them.●