Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

A U.S. military helicopter crashed north of the Shiite holy city of Najaf in central Iraq Jan. 28, 2007. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- About 1,000 people were killed throughout Iraq in the past week due to surging violent attacks, according to an estimate by the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

    The figure includes members of militia and terrorist groups, civilians and Iraqi security forces, media reports quoted a ministry official as saying on Sunday.

    The statistics came just one day after one of the deadliest single bomb attack in central Baghdad that killed at least 130 people and wounded some 305.

    The attack took place in Sedriya, a mixed district of Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds, as an explosive-laden truck loaded with food detonated in the crowded vegetable market.

    On Nov. 23, Shiites were targeted by a series of coordinated car bomb attacks in Sadr City with at least 200 civilians killed.

    The Health Ministry official said he expected the death toll from the attack to rise.

    Violence rages in Iraq as sectarian killings, suicide attacks, bombings, abductions cause dozens of Iraqi casualties daily, though the Iraqi government has announced a new security plan to quell the sectarian violence and growing militia dominance.

    (Agencies)

Iraq continues to witness surge of violent attacks

    BAGHDAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A surge of car bombings and shootings on Saturday claimed the lives of more than a hundred Iraqis with several hundreds wounded in the capital Baghdad and left three northern cities under curfew, including the oil rich city of Kirkuk.

    In one of the deadliest single bombing in a busy market in central Baghdad, at least 120 people were killed and some 246 others wounded when a truck bomb went off, a police source said.

U.S. military probing possible helicopter crashes in N of Baghdad

    BAGHDAD, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military said they were checking reports of a possible aircraft down on Friday, while witnesses said two helicopters were hit in north of Baghdad.

    Earlier, media reports quoted residents from the nearby area of Taji, some 20 km north of Baghdad, as saying that they saw helicopter come down shortly after dawn.