• Resistance fighters blast US base near al-Fallujah with heavy mortars Saturday morning.

In a dispatch posted at 8:40pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that fighting erupted between a detachment of armed men and force made up of puppet policemen and collaborationist "al-Anbar Awakening Police" in 'Akashat near the Syrian-Iraqi border on Saturday evening.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet regime as saying that the fighting lasted nearly an hour and left one of the attackers and two puppet policemen dead. A third puppet policeman was wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment.

In a dispatch posted at 10:35am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that Resistance fighters of the Jaysh al-Mujahideen Resistance organization bombarded the military base in as-Saqlawiyah, 17km north of al-Fallujah (which is 60km west of Baghdad) on Saturday morning.

Yaqen reported witnesses as saying that an armed group of about 10 fighters driving in four unmarked cars under a black flag emblazoned with the words "Jaysh al-Mujahideen" took up positions near the as-Saqlawiyah base, which is occupied by US and puppet army troops. They fired five heavy 120mm mortar rounds into the base, sending plumes of smoke rising from within the facility. US aircraft then flew into the area shortly after the attack.

In a dispatch posted at 7:47pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the puppet army had announced the discovery of a large cache of Iranian weapons in the ar-Rusafah (eastern) side of Baghdad.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet regime as saying that the weapons included rockets and mortars of Iranian manufacture. The report reflected increased US efforts to reorient its occupation away from reliance on Iranian-backed Shi'i sectarian parties.

In a dispatch posted at 6:57pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the puppet police had recovered the bodies of two more victims of sectarian murder in Baghdad on Saturday.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police as saying that one of the two bodies was found in eastern Baghdad and the other in the western part of the US-occupied Iraqi capital.

In a dispatch posted at 8:30pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a group of armed men attacked the motorcade in which Colonel Latif Yasin, the director of the passport office in Tikrit, 180km north of Baghdad, was riding on Saturday evening.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet security services who asked to remain anonymous as saying that the attackers opened fire on the motorcade, wounding Yasin and killing one of his companions. Yasin was taken to Tikrit Hospital for treatment.

In a dispatch posted at 6:32pm Baghdad time Saturday evening, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that US forces together with their puppet army allies imposed a curfew in the town of ad-Dawr, 150km north of Baghdad after a US soldier was killed in there Saturday morning.

The AMSI reported eyewitnesses as saying that the Americans closed all entrances and exits to the city and prevented anyone from moving inside ad-Dawr, closing down traffic between the major cities of Samarra’ and Tikrit.

In a dispatch posted at 10:15am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US Defense Department had admitted that one more of its troops had been killed in the city of Balad, 80km north of Baghdad.

Yaqen reported the American statement as announcing that a 33-year old Sergeant had died in Balad on Christmas, 25 December, from injuries in a bomb explosion during combat operations.

In a dispatch posted at 1:35pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that US occupation forces arrested the puppet police chief for the ar-Riyad area south of Kirkuk at midday Saturday.

Yaqen reported Colonel Sirhan Qadir, the director of the puppet police for districts and region as telling the press that US forces arrested Major 'Abdallah al-Jabburi the local puppet police director and four other members of the puppet police. Colonel Qadir said that the reasons for the arrest remained unknown as of the time of reporting.

In a dispatch posted at 12:20pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that armed men opened fire on puppet policemen in the ad-Darkazliyah area of al-Mawsil, 420km northwest of Baghdad after noon on Saturday.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police as saying that three of the puppet policemen were killed in the attack.

In a dispatch posted at 11:50am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that an unexplained explosion occurred in the al-Qadisiyah neighborhood of al-Mawsil, 420km northwest of Baghdad late on Friday night.

Yaqen reported the puppet police as saying that the explosion injured six people, including two women and a child. The cause of the blast was unknown and under investigation, according to Brigadier General Sa'id al-Jabburi, the Director of Information for al-Mawsil’s puppet police.

In a dispatch posted at 11am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US Defense Department had admitted that two more of its troops had died in the northwestern Iraqi city of al-Mawsil on Wednesday, 26 December as a result of wounds received from small arms in combat operations.

Yaqen indicated that the US statement offered no details on the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the two US soldiers, other than to provide their names and those of their military units.

In a dispatch posted at 7:25pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that puppet regime security forces arrested a prominent official of the office of Shi'i sectarian cleric Muqtada as-Sadr and led him away to an unknown destination.

Yaqen reported a source in the Sadr office in Wasit Province, south of Baghdad, as saying that puppet regime security forces arrested Shaykh Jasim ad-Dalfi, a member of the as-Sadr office there and commander in the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia. He was arrested while attending a meeting of tribes and nobalbes in the as-Sawwad area, 6km east of al-Kut.