The bodies of over 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He added the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month.
In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said.
An attack by a suicide car bomber near a US patrol in southern Baghdad killed two American troops and injured four, an official said Wednesday.
The blast took place in the Al-Amil area of the capital on Tuesday night, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for America's 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad. Seven Iraqi civilians also were rushed to Al-Yarmouk Hospital with injuries, an official there said, according to The AP.
South of Baghdad, one Iraqi policeman died on Wednesday and two were seriously wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Mowailha, said police Capt. Muthana Al-Furati.
Also Wednesday, a car bomb went off near a U.S. convoy in an area of western Baghdad, setting an oil tanker on fire, said police Maj. Moussa Abdulkarim. Two Iraqis were killed and five injured.
The two other car bombs detonated in southern Baghdad. One missed a police convoy but hit a civilian car, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding four, said police Cap. Falah al-Muhamadwai. The other exploded in a car park near in the Dora area, wounding four civilians, said police Lt. Hassan Falah.
In Sadr city, gunmen in a speeding car fired on policeman Ali Talib as he walked toward his car, killing him, said Col. Hussein Abdulwahid of the local police force. In another part of east Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Health Ministry car, killing the driver and wounding one unidentified passenger, said police Col. Hassan Jaloub.
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