Saturday, 2 February 2008.

• US base in ath-Tharthar bombarded at dawn Saturday.

• Bomb destroys US Humvee near al-Habbaniyah Friday night.

• Sectarian murder torture, murder spree continues: five more bodies found dumped around Baghdad Saturday.

• US admits death of American soldier in combat operations in Baghdad Saturday.

• Nearly 100 killed in two bomb attacks on Baghdad markets Friday.

• Bomb rips through US patrol in Tikrit Saturday morning.

• US artillery pounds villages near al-Miqdadiyah Saturday morning.

• US troops shoot two Electric Department employees in al-Miqdadiyah.

• Puppet police clash with puppet army troops at checkpoint in al-Iskandariyah.

In a dispatch posted at 11:35pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that puppet policemen attempted to carry out a search for armed fighters in the city of ar-Rutbah near the Jordanian border on Saturday night, sparking a firefight.

Yaqen reported eyewitnesses as saying that the battle took place in the officers housing area inside the city. The source provided no information regarding the results of the fighting.

In a dispatch posted at 9:15pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a bomb exploded by a US patrol in the al-Karmah area, 7km east of al-Fallujah (which is located 60km west of Baghdad) on Saturday evening.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet regime, who asked not to be identified as saying that the blast heavily damaged a US vehicle. The source would give no further details other than to say that American forces quickly closed off the area to prevent information regarding US losses from leaking out.

In a dispatch posted at 5:29pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that US occupation troops arrested three civilians at the western approaches to al-Fallujah, 60km west of Baghdad, as they tried to enter the city Saturday morning.

The AMSI reported a source in the al-Fallujah puppet police as saying that that the Americans, who control all the approaches to al-Fallujah, asked for the three men’s identity papers as they approached the city. When the US troops found that the men had been prisoners in the American Camp Bucca prison in al-Basrah in southern Iraq, they arrested them and prepared to take them to a US base in the area. The source offered no further details on the reasons for the arrest.

In a dispatch posted at 10:06am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that four mortar shells blasted into the US base in ath-Tharthar in northern al-Anbar Province at dawn Saturday morning.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet regime, who asked not to be identified, as saying that a vehicle was damaged when one of the shells scored a direct hit on it inside the headquarters, which the American occupation forces share with their puppet regime allies. The source offered no further details on the attack.

In a dispatch posted at 10am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a bomb exploded by a patrol of three US military vehicles on duty guarding the highway to al-Habbaniyah, 70km west of Baghdad on Friday night.

Yaqen reported eyewitnesses as saying that the blast destroyed a US Humvee that was in the patrol.

In a dispatch posted at 7:25pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the puppet police recovered the bodies of five more victims of sectarian murder that had been dumped around Baghdad on Saturday.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police as saying that the victims were all bound and blindfolded and their bodies also showed signs of torture. They died of gunshot wounds.

In a dispatch posted at 6:50pm Baghdad time Saturday evening, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US military admitted that a bomb explosion had killed one more of its troops in Baghdad on Saturday.

Yaqen reported an American communiqué as saying that a bomb exploded by a US patrol on a combat operation in Baghdad Saturday, killing one American soldier. In keeping with the US practice of concealing facts regarding US losses, the communiqué offered no further details.

In a dispatch posted at 5:21pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that armed men ambushed the two-car motorcade of the Assistant Dean of the College of Dentistry at Baghdad University in the Zuyunah area of eastern Baghdad on Saturday.

The AMSI reported the puppet police as saying that two of the professor’s bodyguards were killed in the attack on Dr. 'Abd al-Karim al-Muhammadawi’s motorcade, but that the professor himself was not injured.

AMSI noted that the Dean of the Dental College at Baghdad University, Dr. Mundhir Muhrij Radi, was shot dead in his car in the al-Karakh district of the city on the afternoon of 23 January.

Since the US invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, hundreds of Iraqi intellectuals have been gunned down in mysterious circumstances as part of an apparent plot, generally attributed to the Zionist Mossad secret police, to eliminate the country’s intelligentsia.

In a dispatch posted on its Arabic website at 5:36pm Saturday evening Beijing time (12:36pm Baghdad time), the Xinhua News Agency reported that a source in the puppet "Iraqi Ministry of the Interior" had announced that the death toll from the two bombings in two bird and pet markets in Baghdad on Friday had now risen to 98 killed and 130 injured.

Xinhua reported the source as saying Saturday that the toll at the al-Ghazal market in central Baghdad and the Bird market in Baghdad al-Jadidah had increased because many badly wounded people had died in hospital in the previous few hours

In a dispatch posted at 1:30pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a bomb exploded by a US patrol on Market Street in downtown Tikrit, 180km north of Baghdad on Saturday morning.

Yaqen reported eyewitnesses as saying that the blast inflicted losses on the American patrol and that the street was closed for more than half an hour after the attack. US troops carried out searches in neighborhoods near the scene of the bombing.

In a dispatch posted at 1:20pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that tribal "Awakening" collaborator police shot and killed a civilian resident of ash-Sharuqat, 250km north of Baghdad on Saturday.

Yaqen reported eyewitnesses as saying that as a local civilian was going through a check point in the city the "Awakening" police opened fire randomly on him, killing him on the spot.

A source in the puppet police told Yaqen by telephone that the individual had failed to follow instructions given by the "Awakening" police, who told him to stop. So they shot him to death. It was later learned that the victim was a relative of an official in the "Awakening" police in ash-Sharuqat.

In a dispatch posted at 12:20pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a bomb exploded by a patrol of tribal collaborator "Awakening" police in the village of Tall Muhammad in the ash-Sharuqat area, 250km north of Baghdad on Saturday.

Yaqen reported a source in the ash-Sharuqat puppet police as saying that four of the "Awakening" collaborators were killed and nine more wounded in the explosion.

In a dispatch posted on its Arabic website at 7:18pm Saturday night Beijing time (2:18pm Baghdad time), the Xinhua News Agency reported a source in the Salah ad-Din Province puppet police command as saying that a joint force of US occupation troops and Iraqi puppet army soldiers carried out a raid on the village of al-Jullam, 25km east of Samarra’, at dawn Saturday.

Xinhua reported the puppet police announcement as claiming that the attack, which was carried out on the basis of intelligence information, left four armed fighters dead. In addition, the Americans claimed to have captured Safa’ Muhammad 'Abdallah, allegedly a deputy to the al-Qa'idah commander in Salah ad-Din Province. The statement, as reported, made no mention of US or puppet army casualties.

Xinhua reported that puppet regime armed forces in Salah ad-Din Province had intensified their activities in anticipation of the movement of many al-Qa'idah fighters southwards into their territory when the US launches an expected offensive in the area of al-Mawsil northwest of Salah ad-Din.

In a dispatch posted at 11:43am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a puppet "Iraqi Interior Ministry Shock Troops (Maghawir)" clashed with gunmen of al-Qa'idah’s "Islamic State of Iraq" in the as-Sikak neighborhood of Samarra’, 120km north of Baghdad late on Friday evening.

Yaqen reported a source in the Samarra’ puppet police as saying that four of the al-Qa'idah gunmen were killed and two "Shock troops" wounded. The "Shock Troops" then confiscated two cars, light arms and fake IDs belonging to the al-Qa'idah attackers and began a search for more such gunmen in the as-Sikak neighborhood.

In a dispatch posted at 2:16pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that US occupation artillery bombarded the villages of al-'Abbasiyah and Ba Bilan to the north of al-Miqdadiyah, 85km northeast of Baghdad on Saturday morning.

The AMSI reported a source in the al-Miqdadiyah puppet security forces as saying that 20 artillery shells landed in the fields surrounding the two areas in a bombardment the pretext for which was that armed fighters were supposedly entrenched there.

In a dispatch posted at 2:16pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported a source in the puppet regime security forces in al-Miqdadiyah, 85km northeast of Baghdad, as saying that US troops shot and wounded two employees of the al-Miqdadiyah Electricity Department as they left their homes in the villages in the 'Arab Jabbur region of the al-Jazirah area.

The AMSI reported that the source offered no further details on the background of the American shootings.

In a dispatch posted on its Arabic website at 7:03pm Saturday night Beijing time (2:03pm Baghdad time), the Xinhua News Agency reported that an argument escalated into a gun battle between puppet policemen manning a checkpoint and puppet regime army troops in the city of al-Iskandariyah, 50km south of Baghdad.

Xinhua reported a statement issued by the Iraqi puppet police as saying that the clash took place between a puppet army patrol made up of three vehicles under the command of an officer and the puppet policemen manning a checkpoint in al-Iskandariyah. The police statement reported that one puppet policeman was wounded in the gun battle and two of the puppet army troops were arrested and are currently being held for interrogation concerning the reasons for the clash.

The puppet police announcement also said that in a separate incident, US forces accompanied by puppet Iraqi army troops raided the Electricity Department in the al-Mikanik neighborhood of southern al-Iskandariyah following reports that armed men were entrenched there. The Americans and their puppet army allies surrounded the Department and arrested six armed men, the statement said in addition to finding a large quantity of arms and ammunition of various sorts. The statement failed to specify with what "armed group" the men were supposedly affiliated.

In a dispatch posted at 10:44am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a bomb went off by a car carrying collaborationist "Awakening" police in the town of ar-Riyad, 30km southwest of Kirkuk on Saturday morning.

Yaqen reported Captain Shakir Mahmud of the Kirkuk puppet police command as saying that the bomb damaged the car and wounded three "Awakening" collaborators. The three men were immediately taken to the ar-Riyad Clinic for first aid treatment.

In a dispatch posted at 12:05pm Baghdad time midday Saturday, the Yaqen News Agency reported that puppet police clashed with al-Qa 'idah gunmen in the at-Tub area of Tall 'Afar, 55km west of al-Mawsil in northwestern Iraq on Saturday morning.

Yaqen reported eyewitnesses as saying that five of the al-Qa'idah gunmen were killed and a number more wounded and two of the puppet policemen were killed in the battle. Brigadier General Kazim Muhayri of the al-Mawsil puppet police confirmed the report of the clash.

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