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Gunmen abduct 50 Iraqis; Bombings kill two
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-09 16:40
Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry on
Wednesday stormed an Iraqi security company that relied heavily on Sunni
ex-military men from the Saddam regime, spiriting away 50 hostages. The ministry
denied involvement and called the operation a "terrorist act."
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| U.S. Army Col. James Pasquarette is flanked by his Battle Cpt.
Chris Swickard, left, and Deputy Commander Lt. Col. Kevin Dixon during a
briefing of American and Iraqi commanders in and around Baghdad, from his
command post at Taji air base 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad,
Iraq, Wednesday, March 8, 2006. In Baghdad, gunmen in camouflage uniforms
stormed the offices of a private Iraqi security company Wednesday and
kidnapped as many as 50 employees, while U.S. and Iraqi patrols earlier
discovered 24 bodies in various parts of the capital, police said.
[AP] |
On Thursday, two roadside bombings targeting Iraqi patrols killed at least
two civilians and injured 10, police said.
One blast missed an army patrol in Amariyah, a mostly Sunni neighborhood in
west Baghdad, but killed two civilians and injured seven, said police Capt.
Jassim al-Wahish.
Another was aimed at a police patrol in Jihad, a mostly Sunni western
neighborhood, injuring three civilians bystanders, said police Lt. Mohammed
Kheyoun.
Meanwhile, police and the U.S. military reported finding the bodies of 24 men
garroted or shot in the head, most of them in an abandoned bus in a tough
Baghdad Sunni neighborhood.
They also reported the deaths of at least 15 others across Iraq, including a
U.S. soldier and two Marines.
The Sunni minority, which was dominant in the country under Saddam Hussein,
has complained bitterly that it is under attack from death squads associated
with the Interior Ministry, in charge of Iraq's police. And, over the past two
weeks 锟斤拷 since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra 锟斤拷 violence has become
increasingly sectarian. Nearly 600 people have been killed since Feb. 22.
Many of the dead in that period were Sunnis, killed at close range after
apparently being captured by overwhelming numbers of attackers. The nature of
the killings suggested that a well-armed and organized force carried out the
attacks.
There have also been repeated attacks against the Shiite-led security forces.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr and one of his assistants may themselves have been
targets of assassination attempts Wednesday.
A bomb hidden under a parked car detonated as police from Jabr's protection
force were driving through Baghdad, killing two officers and wounding a third,
police said. Four bystanders were injured.
And gunmen attacked the convoy of Interior Ministry Undersecretary Hekmet
Moussa in west Baghdad, killing two bodyguards and injuring two others, police
said.
Neither Jabr nor Moussa were in the convoys.
The sectarian bloodshed has complicated Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim
al-Jaafari's bid for a second term. Al-Jaafari is opposed by a coalition of
Sunni Arab, Kurdish and secular Shiite politicians 锟斤拷 led by President Jalal
Talabani, a Kurd.
The president has openly challenged al-Jaafari's candidacy on grounds he is
too divisive and would be unable to form a government representing all Iraq's
religious and ethnic factions. There was also great unease over al-Jaafari's
close ties to radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
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