• Sectarian murder spree continues: four more bodies found dumped around Baghdad Thursday.

In a dispatch posted at 6:30pm Baghdad time Thursday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the puppet "Iraqi Interior Ministry" announced that its puppet police had recovered the bodies of four more victims of sectarian murder that had been dumped around Baghdad in the previous 24 hours.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet "Interior Ministry" as saying that three of the bodies were found in eastern Baghdad’s ar-Rusafah side, while the fourth was discovered in western Baghdad’s al-'Amil neighborhood. All had been shot to death.

In a dispatch posted at 3:23pm Baghdad time Thursday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that Muhammad al-Haydari, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee in the puppet "Iraqi Parliament" announced that more than 70,000 Iraqis are being held by US occupation forces in prisons in occupied Iraq.

Yaqen reported al-Haydari as saying that the prisons are closed and no one is allowed to visit the captives. Al-Haydari accused the US of committing numerous violations of the rights of the prisoners.

In a dispatch posted at 11:55am Baghdad time Thursday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US military had announced the arrest of two people following the discovery of a large weapons cache belonging to the Jaysh al-Mahdi Shi'i sectarian militia in Baghdad’s al-Bayya' district – a part of the Iraqi capital that the Jaysh al-Mahdi dominates.

Yaqen reported a US statement as saying that US troops accompanied by their puppet army allies discovered a weapons cache in an office of the Medical Administration in al-Bayya'.

When Muqtada as-Sadr’s movement (whose armed wing is the Jaysh al-Mahdi) was participating in the puppet "government," one of its men was the puppet "Minister of Health" and hospitals and other health facilities throughout the country were turned into bastions of the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia.

The American statement indicated that two men who supervised the cache were also arrested and taken away for questioning.

In recent weeks the US has increasingly targeted the Jaysh al-Mahdi as the American occupation realigns itself with Sunni collaborators against Shi'i sectarian militias – the same militias upon which the US initially built up its occupation of Iraq in previous years.

In a dispatch posted at 9:55am Baghdad time Thursday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that two mysterious bombs exploded by civilian targets in Baghdad on Thursday morning.

Yaqen reported that the first explosive device went off by a Kia bus near al-'Ahd Radio in al-Baladiyat. The blast killed one civilian and wounded nine more of them in addition to inflicting material damage on the bus.

The second bomb exploded near the Musa ibn Nusayr fuel station on an-Nidal Street, wounding two civilians.

In a dispatch posted at 7:20pm Baghdad time Thursday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that armed men ambushed an Iraqi puppet army convoy in the area of Sulyaman Bak, just south of Tuz Khurmatu, about 250km north of Baghdad.

Yaqen reported an official as saying that two of the puppet army troops on the convoy were wounded in the attack and three more of the troops were "lost" in the course of the ambush. The official said that the wounded men were evacuated to a nearby hospital.

In a dispatch posted at 12:55pm Baghdad time Thursday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that armed men set up their own check point and abducted 22 individuals between Kan 'an and Balad Ruz, east of Ba'qubah (which is 65km northeast of Baghdad) on Thursday.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet security forces who asked not to be identified as saying that armed men stopped two civilian cars at their checkpoint and forced passengers to get out. They then led the victims away to an unknown destination. The source offered no further details.

In a dispatch posted at 12:20pm Baghdad time Thursday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that armed men attacked a checkpoint manned by puppet army troops in the town of Kan'an, 35km east of Ba'qubah (which is 65km northeast of Baghdad) on Thursday.

Yaqen reported a source in the Diyala Province puppet police as saying that the attack sparked a gun battle between the puppet troops and the attackers that left 11 puppet army soldiers wounded. The casualties were taken to a medical unit operated by the Iraqi puppet army for treatment.

In a dispatch posted at 10:04pm Baghdad time Thursday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that puppet police for ad-Diwaniyah Province had discovered a "large cache" of weapons and ammunition belonging to the Shi'i sectarian Jaysh al-Mahdi militia west of the city of ad-Diwaniyah, which is 180km south of Baghdad.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police as saying that the weapons had been found in the ad-Dagharah area, 18km west of ad-Diwaniyah and that it contained rockets, light and medium weapons, mortar shells, explosives, and hand grenades.

The announcement of the "find" came at a time when the US has been increasingly targeted the Jaysh al-Mahdi as the American occupation realigns itself with Sunni collaborators against Shi'i sectarian militias – the same militias upon which the US initially built up its occupation of Iraq in previous years.

In a dispatch posted at 10:15am Baghdad time Thursday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported the office of Shi'i sectarian cleric Muqtada as-Sadr as claiming that seven of the movement’s Jaysh al-Mahdi militiamen had been killed or wounded in an American helicopter attack on a neighborhood of al-Kut, 150km southeast of Baghdad at dawn Thursday.

Yaqen reported a source in the as-Sadr office as saying that US helicopters opened fire on the al-Jihad neighborhood of the western part of the city at dawn Thursday, killing four Jaysh al-Mahdi gunmen and wounding three more of them.

The source said that US forces, accompanied by puppet regime Special Forces have been carrying out raids for several days in residential neighborhood in the city looking for men listed as "wanted" for security reasons by the puppet regime. As of the time of reporting, the American side had issued no report on the attack.

In recent weeks the US has increasingly targeted the Jaysh al-Mahdi as the American occupation realigns itself with Sunni collaborators against Shi'i sectarian militias – the same militias upon which the US initially built up its occupation of Iraq in previous years.