Ramadam start punctuated with attacks around Iraq

The official start to Ramadan was punctuated with violent attacks around Iraq today, including an assault on a police station and the discovery of more apparent victims of sectarian death squads in the capital.

One policeman was killed and six wounded when their station in Musayyib, about 60 miles south of Baghdad came under heavy attack.

Six cars drove up to the building at about 8.30am (5.30am Irish time) and opened fire with machine-guns, then began firing volleys of mortar shells, said police Capt. Salah al-Maamouri. The unidentified attackers then fled when American troops arrived.

In south-eastern Baghdad at about the same time, police found the bodies of two men in their 30s. They had been shot several times in the head, and their hands and legs were bound, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majeed. Two other bodies were found in south-west of the capital the on Saturday night.

In Baghdad’s eastern Wahda neighbourhood, three policemen were wounded in a bomb attack. A bomb planted under a civilian car exploded, setting it alight, then when police moved in to investigate a second bomb exploded causing the injuries, Majeed said.

Iraqi army troops and US advisers killed at least two suspected insurgents and captured another 12 in an early morning raid on two Baghdad homes, the US command said.

The military said the men detained are believed to have been involved in numerous attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces.

“Iraqi citizens who have questioned or disagreed with these actions have allegedly been kidnapped, tortured and murdered,” the military said.

Last night, four cars pulled up outside the United Arab Emirates’ embassy in Baghdad and assailants fired a rocket propelled grenade at it, police Lt. Maithem Abdel-Razzaq said. The round hit an external concrete block and caused no injuries.

Later in the evening, a roadside bomb in Baghdad’s Dora neighbourhood exploded next to a civilian car, killing two people and injuring three others, Razzaq said.

And in the city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, gunmen last night broke into the home of city council head Najim Abdulla Suod, killing him and his son, a 23-year-old university student, said police Lt. Amer Ahmed.

Iraq’s Sunnis started fasting on Saturday after the sect’s Association of Muslim Scholars declared Friday was the start of Ramadan. The country’s Shiite majority begin observing the Muslim holy month today after Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, declared it the official start.

Iraq has seen increased violence during Ramadan in the past, and Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for the US-led military coalition, warned last week it was anticipated that Iraq’s already severe sectarian violence would escalate during the holy month once again.