At least 30 people were killed and 219 injured in clashes between U.S. occupation forces and Shiite fighters in Iraqi cities in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
A spokesman said most of the victims were civilians. The figure did not include casualties among foreign forces or the city of Najaf.
According to Reuters, fierce battles reported in Amara, some 350 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, where 15 people were killed and 78 wounded. Deaths also reported in clashes in other cities, including Baghdad, Kut, Diwaniya and Basra.
Meanwhile, gunmen killed the head of a regional office of one of Iraq's leading Shiite parties in a drive-by shooting south of the capital, police and officials said Wednesday.
Ali al-Khalisi, the head of Diyala province for the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was assassinated in the town of Mahmoudiya, some 40 kilometers south of Baghdad, said Haitham al-Husseini, a SCIRI spokesman.
Gunmen drove up beside his car and opened fire, said Alaa Hussein from Mahmoudiya police, and Dawoud al-Taei, from the hospital that received al-Khalisi. Al-Khalisi was in Mahmoudiya visiting family, al-Husseini said, according to The AP. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
