Iraqi Violence

To assure the safety of others, only sketchy information has been provided in the report of seven marines killed in two separate incidents in the Anbar Province which includes Fallujah and Ramadi.

Also unclear is the number of casualties from a homicide-suicide car bombing at the western Harthiyah gate into the fortified Green Zone within Baghdad. It's estimated that as many as 13 were killed and 19 wounded. According to US army Lt. Colonel James Hutton, "no multinational forces personnel [were] wounded or killed."

[Update] From a Reuters report:

A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Baghdad which killed at least seven people on Monday, according to an Internet statement.

"On this blessed day, a lion from the martyrs battalion struck a group of apostates and Americans in the Green Zone," Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq said in a statement posted on a Web site used by Islamists.

The authenticity of the message has not been verified.