POSTED: 8:50 a.m. EST, February 4, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi Interior Ministry estimates that about 1,000 people have been killed throughout Iraq in the past week due to gunbattles, drive-by shootings and bomb attacks, a ministry official said Sunday.
The figure includes members of militia and terrorist groups, civilians and Iraqi security forces. The official said the data was gathered by Iraq's Interior, Health and Defense ministries.
The grim estimate came just a day after a bloody bomb attack on a crowded market in central Baghdad that killed 128 people and wounded 343 others Saturday, according to a Health Ministry official.
The incident, which also destroyed cars and surrounding stores, occurred in Sedriya, a mixed district of Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds.
more...50 minutes ago
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military is adjusting its tactics in Iraq after four helicopters were shot down over the past two weeks, U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said on Sunday.
Caldwell said the helicopters had been shot down in four separate incidents in which 21 U.S. servicemen and private security contractors were killed, confirming earlier witness reports and leaks from within the U.S. military.
Dozens of U.S. helicopters have come down, some of them hit by missiles or gunfire, in four years of fighting. But the unusually high number of helicopters lost in such a short time had raised questions about whether militants had changed tactics or were using more sophisticated weapons.
"There has been an ongoing effort to target our helicopters," Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad "We have had four helicopters shot down ... It appears they were all the result of some kind of ground fire."
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