From AP, “Nine Killed in Third Day of Iraq Attacks”
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents began a third straight day of attacks in Iraq on Sunday, including ambushes, car bombs and a drive-by shooting, killing nine Iraqis and wounding 21, police said.
That raised the death toll from the latest wave of insurgent attacks that began on Friday to at least 74. The violence was timed to deflate hopes in Washington and Baghdad that the installation of the Iraq’s first democratically elected government would curb the uprising.
One U.S. soldier also died in Saturday’s attacks.
The strikes have been increasingly well coordinated, and that was the case in an ambush Sunday on a small road near Diala Bridge in eastern Baghdad, said police Lt. Col. Sabah Hamid al-Firtosi.
At 6:15 a.m., a pickup truck stopped near a checkpoint and insurgents jumped out and began firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Other insurgents appeared from behind nearby trees and joined the fight. Five policemen were killed and one was wounded, al-Firtosi said.
Later in the morning, a car bomb exploded in the Zafaraniyah neighborhood of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi civilians and wounding 12, police said.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, insurgents in three parked cars opened fire with hand guns on a police patrol in the western Jihad neighborhood, wounding four policemen, said police Capt. Talib Thamir.
Two attacks occurred Sunday in and around Hillah city, 60 miles south of Baghdad, police said.
A roadside bomb exploded on a main road north of Hillah, wounding four civilians, said police Capt. Muthana Khalid.
Also in Hillah on Sunday, a police patrol was the target of a drive-by shooting attack but avoided any casualties. The police arrested the four gunmen involved, Khalid said…