U.S. deaths: A soldier was killed yesterday by a roadside bomb that hit his vehicle north of Baghdad, raising to at least 4,080 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The AP count is the same as the Defense Department's tally.
At least 3,326 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Weapons cache destroyed: U.S. forces killed six militants and destroyed a weapons cache in an airstrike in the town of Khan Bani Saad, near Baquba, the U.S. military said. Baquba is 42 miles north of Baghdad.
Car bomb deaths: A parked car bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded four others on patrol in Zayouna district in eastern Baghdad, police said.
Four wounded: A mortar shell wounded four people in Iskan district in western Baghdad, police said.
Bodies found: Five bodies were found in various districts of Baghdad on Saturday, police said.
Security clashes: Fighting between security forces and gunmen in cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City killed four people and wounded 38 overnight, police and hospital sources said.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steven Stover, said U.S. forces killed three militants in southern Sadr City after coming under fire, but he knew of no other casualties. The slum was largely quiet yesterday, he said.
Militants killed U.S. forces killed two militants who tried to attack them in northwestern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
U.S. forces also captured three wanted militants and detained a dozen other men during operations in the northern city of Mosul, Tikrit and Abu Ghraib, the U.S. military said.
Weapons buyback: The interior minister, Jawad al-Bolani, warned insurgents in the northern city of Mosul that they would become “targets” if they did not take advantage of an amnesty and weapons buyback offer made on Friday by the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
The Iraqi government is offering $167 for a 60-millimeter mortar tube and $416 for a machine gun. In a reflection of the surfeit of guns in Iraq, payments for handguns and assault rifles were lower, ranging from $41 for a pistol to $120 for a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Iraqis are allowed to possess one assault rifle or pistol for self-defense.
In Baghdad, the Oil Ministry said that it had compiled a list of 35 foreign companies eligible for contracts to raise production at Iraqi oil fields, in a step toward meeting the government's goal of pumping an additional 500,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
After years of neglect, Iraq's oil fields are decrepit and produce far less oil than they did at their peak in 1979, when Saddam Hussein took power.
The companies are bidding for contracts to make repairs and improve performance of existing fields.
