Iraq Press Roundup

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The Baghdad-based Al Mada newspaper reported Monday on a Defense Ministry statement announcing that 15 suspected terrorists were killed and 20 suspects arrested in different parts of Iraq.

The report also said that in northwest Baghdad and other areas, 10 bombs were controlled. Separately, two improvised explosive devices were controlled south of Baghdad.

Also, police said armed men assassinated an Iraqi journalist who worked for a local TV channel.

In Babil province, police said two civilians were killed and many houses damaged when mortar shells fell on a residential area in Hila city, south of Baghdad. And in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, a police source said that five people, including three Iraqi soldiers, were wounded in a car-bomb attack on a checkpoint in north of Baqouba.

In Kirkuk province, north of Baghdad, a police source said a policeman was wounded in clashes between insurgents and police. Police arrested 28 suspects and found fliers "promoting violence and calling for attacks" against security forces.

In Ramadi city, northwest of Baghdad, the bodies of two kidnapped people were recovered. Also in Ramadi, insurgents assassinated a police commander's brother.

The Kurdish Al Itihad newspaper reported Monday the High Judicial Council announced verdicts against 50 convicted of "committing various crimes of killing, kidnapping and owning illegal weapons."

The statement said the convicts were all from Baghdad. The report said the judicial council gave 10 life in prison for owning weapons and 30 years in prison against 32 people for killing and kidnapping civilians.

In another report, the newspaper said the U.S. Army in cooperation with Iraqi forces arrested in the south of Iraq a police commander accused of involvement in smuggling weapons from Iran and supporting militias.

"He was also responsible for the missile attacks on many Iraqi and U.S. bases in Kut city, south of Iraq" the paper said.

In another report, the newspaper quoted a medical source as saying 35 bodies were buried in Diyala city.

"We have had these dead bodies in the morgue for three months but no one could identify them,” the source said.

The report said the bodies were of Kurds and Shiites ages 20 to 40 who were kidnapped and then killed.

Separately, a security source said 11 bodies -- including women and children -- were found in two mass graves in Baqouba city, Diyala province.

In Diyala, a suspected terrorist was killed and another wounded during a security operation in the north of the city.

The Interior Ministry announced nine bodies were found in Baghdad, the paper said. It also said the Iraqi Islamic State announced the execution of five Iraqi officers who were kidnapped.

"The group published a tape of the execution on the Internet," the paper reported.