260 Iraqis Killed in an Initial War Report on July 12, 2007, Including 220 in Three Massacres

Editor's Note:

Browsing Iraqi online newspapers, in Arabic, yields a lot more deaths and injuries than what the Iraqi government and US forces spokespersons announce to the media daily. As a result, no one exactly knows how many Iraqis are killed everyday. But the number is in the hundreds (260 today), as the following quick survey of some Iraqi newspapers has yielded.

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- pro-government Iraqi National News Agency (Wana) reported killing a soldier in Suwairah and discovering three bodies of Iraqis also in the same area.

- 4 policemen, 2 soldiers were killed in clashes south of Tikrit.

- A US soldier committed suicide in front of Iraqis in Siham Mutawali street in Al-A'adhamiyah yesterday. He came out of the vehicle and put his gun under his mouth, then shot himself. Another soldier tried to prevent him but couldn't.

- The pro-government newspaper, Iraq of tomorrow, reported killing 20 Iraqis and injuring 20 others by US forces in Al-Miqdadiyah.

- The pro-government newspaper, Iraq of tomorrow, reported killing of five Iraqis, allegedly members of Mahdi Army in Al-Diwaniyah, in a US air raid.

- The pro-government newspaper, sotaliraq, reported on a massacre in Diayala in which US-led forces killed 175 Iraqis, in and around Ba'aqouba.

- 25 more Iraqis were massacred in Al-Wajihiyah also today.

- 6 more Iraqis were killed in Al-Dayniah area.

- Three guards of Dar El-Salam Bank managed to rob $282 million from the Bank yesterday, in Al-Sa'adoun area of Baghdad.

(صوت العراق) - 12-07-2007
ارسل هذا الموضوع لصديق

المركز الإعلامي للبلاغ _ خاص

قتلت القوات الامنية 175 ارهابيا في مركز ونواحي بعقوبة بعد اشتباكات استمرت لساعات مع العناصر الارهابية .

واضاف مراسلنا ان من بين القتلى من حمل الجنسية العربية والافغانية .

وفي تطور لاحق قتل 25 ارهابيا في ناحية الوجيهية على يد القوات الامنية .

هذا فيما ابطلت قوات الشرطة مفعول عبوة ناسفة امام احد المنازل في قضاء بلدروز .

فيما قتل 6 من اعضاء الفرق البعثية في منطقة الداينية وهم من قيادات كتائب ثورة العشرين .

يذكر ان العملية الامنية مازالت مستمرة في محافظة ديالى من اجل تعقب العناصر الارهابية والتكفيرية .
http://arabic-media.com/newspapers/iraq/sotaliraq.htm

The Associated Press reported killing of 31 Iraqis on July 12, 2007.

U.S Troops Raid Baghdad Shiite District

Jul 12, 2007, 3:37 PM EDT

By LEE KEATH Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) --

U.S. troops raided a Shi'i area of Baghdad on Thursday, capturing two Iraqis believed linked to Iran and sparking a battle that Iraqi officials said killed 19 people. Two employees of the Reuters news agency were among the dead.

Angry residents of the Amin district fled to Baghdad from Ba'aqouba, where U.S. troops are waging an offensive against Iraqi fighters - accused U.S. helicopters of striking buildings during the fight with gunmen and killing civilians. The U.S. military did not immediately comment on the fighting.

Among the dead were at least one woman and two children, and some of the men slain appeared to have been armed and firing on the Americans, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.

AP Television News footage showed buildings riddled with holes from heavy machine gun and rocket fire, and a minibus with its front seat blasted away.

U.S. forces have been waging an intensified security crackdown against Iraqi fighters in and around Baghdad for nearly a month, as the Iraqi government struggles to make political progress.

The violence in the Amin district in eastern Baghdad began with a pre-dawn raid by U.S. forces, who captured two Iraqis allegedly involved in kidnappings and planting roadside bombs against American and Iraqi troops, the military said in a statement. Militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the troops, hitting a nearby building, according to the military.

After the initial raid, U.S. troops surrounded the neighborhood for several hours, announcing with loudspeakers to residents that they were seeking Iraqi fighters and that they should stay inside, said an Iraqi police official who was at the scene.

As the Americans withdrew about 11 a.m., they came under fire, the official said. That prompted troops to move back into the district, assaulting several buildings. A U.S. attack helicopter struck targets on the ground, he said.

The result was a battle with Iraqi fighters that included mortars and rockets, the official said. Several explosions hit residential buildings, killing eight people, including a woman and two children, said the official and another police officer involved in counting the casualties. They could not say whether the blasts came from the helicopter or from militants.

Eleven others - mostly men, including some suspected gunmen - were killed on the street near buildings, shops and a Shi'i religious building, the police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give information to reporters.

Officials from the three hospitals where the victims were taken put the toll at 19 dead and 20 wounded. Among the dead were an Iraqi photographer for Reuters, Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, the London-based news agency said. "The cause of their deaths was unclear, although witnesses spoke of an explosion in the area," Reuters reported. "Iraqi police said either a U.S. airstrike or a mortar attack had occurred."

The U.S. military reported on the initial raid but not on the later fighting. The Associated Press asked the U.S. by e-mail for comment but was told only that reports were still coming in.

Residents blamed the Americans for the destruction.

"We are refugees, we were displaced from our homes by militant attacks," said one woman, who like others had come to the neighborhood from Ba'aqouba. "And now we have to deal with attacks from Americans."

"They hit the building and destroyed it completely. My mother is dead, my sister is dead. I don't know where my father is," said the woman, who refused to identify herself, speaking in front of a residential building where the ground floor of shops was gutted.

In southern Iraq, clashes erupted between Mahdi Army militia and the Iraqi army, killing a soldier and a civilian in the city of Diwaniyah, police said. The U.S. military said Thursday that American-Iraqi sweeps in the city over the previous two days had killed eight alleged Iraqi fighters.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt by a wedding party in Tal Afar, a city 260 miles northwest of Baghdad that has seen frequent attacks. A police officer in Tal Afar said five people were killed and five wounded, though the bride and groom escaped injury.

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