Al-Qaida kills 23 in coordinated attacks, plants flag in Baghdad

An AP report by Bushra Juhi today recounts various attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq against domestic security forces, resulting in 23 deaths.

In the worst attack of the day, 16 Iraqi security forces were killed in Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah by al-Qaida militants, who then planted their flag close to the blood-soaked site.

Earlier, a suicide bomber killed four Iraqi soldiers and wounded 10 at an army base north of Baghdad. In Fallujah, 40 miles west of the capital, roadside bombs killed two soldiers and wounded 8 others. One policeman was killed in Mosul by a bomb attached to a police vehicle.

The attacks follow the statement earlier this week by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen that security in Iraq has made "stunning" progress in the last three years.

The United States is planning to pull out all its combat troops by September 1, 2010, leaving a contingency of 50,000 support troops on the ground. All American troops are scheduled to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.