The violence rises in Iraq

Gee, cold it be the angry American soldiers?  Those pesky Mennonites?  Followers of Mother Teresa?

Heh.


From AFP/Google January 10 by Bassim al-Anbari


Iraq attacks kill five policemen, town mayor

RAMADI, Iraq — Gun attacks in Baghdad and predominantly Sunni west Iraq on Wednesday left five policemen and a town mayor dead, security and medical officials said.

The violence comes three weeks after US troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq, with the country locked in a political standoff that has raised sectarian tensions.

In Wednesday's deadliest attack, insurgents attacked a police station near the Syrian border early in the morning and killed three policemen, including a captain, according to police and a medic.

Police killed one of the gunmen who carried out the attack in the town of Al-Qaim, in mostly Sunni Anbar province west of Baghdad, and wounded another. A third escaped.

"Three police -- two policemen and a captain -- were killed when several armed men attacked the police station at about 3:00 am (0000 GMT)," said police Captain Mohanned Mukhlif Hamadi.

"The attack was followed by clashes between policemen at the station and the attackers. One of the gunmen was killed and another wounded, but one escaped."

A medic at Ramadi hospital confirmed that the facility had received the body of one of the gunmen and had treated the one who was wounded.

Also in Anbar province, gunmen murdered the mayor of Heet, 170 kilometres (105 miles) west of Baghdad, as he was leaving the mosque, police said.

Saeed Hamdan Ghazal, who had just completed evening prayers, was shot dead by attackers on a motorcycle who then fled the scene, two police officials said.

Ghazal was killed instantly, according to a police spokesman and Iyada al-Nimrawi, the town's deputy police chief.

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