IRAQ: Militants strike Baghdad neighourhood patrols

Record ID: 356821

  • Title: IRAQ: Militants strike Baghdad neighourhood patrols
  • Date: 15th December 2007
  • Summary: DAMAGED FURNITURE SCATTERED INSIDE ROOM GROUP OF NEIGHBOURHOOD PATROL STANDING IN ROOM WATCHING PILE OF BOOKS ON GROUND LITTERED BY DEBRIS
  • Embargoed: 30th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAE70NNF46F53ZTGID7U3ULMAI3
  • Story Text: Gunmen and bombers launched three attacks on U.S.-backed neighbourhood security patrols in Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least three of the patrol members and wounding 17.
    U.S. forces in Iraq have increasingly relied on neighbourhood patrols to keep peace in mainly Sunni Arab parts of Iraq as part of a strategy that has helped bring violence levels down dramatically over the past several months.
    But the patrol members, who are paid by U.S. forces and not officially part of the Iraqi security forces, have increasingly come under attack by militants.
    In one incident on Saturday (December 15), bombers killed two patrol members and wounded 10 in a strike on their headquarters in the Adhamiya neighbourhood of northern Iraq, until recently a Sunni Arab militant stronghold.
    U.S. forces call the patrols "concerned local citizens"
    and pay some 50,000 patrol members about 10 U.S. dollars a day. They are expected to provide their own weapons but are issued ID cards and simple uniforms such as reflector vests or shoulder belts.
    Washington acknowledges some of the patrol members may have had links to insurgent groups but says they are screened to weed out those responsible for attacks.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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