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Gunmen abduct 50 Iraqis; Bombings kill two
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-09 16:40
On Wednesday, Shiite Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi finally co-signed a
presidential decree to call parliament into session for the first time since the
Dec. 15 elections. The about-face appeared to break a political deadlock that
had blocked attempts to begin the process of forming the country's first
permanent, post-invasion government.
"He signed the decree today. I expect the first session to be held on Sunday
or by the end of next week at the latest," said Nadim al-Jabiri, head of one of
seven Shiite parties that make up the United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in
parliament.
At the same time, however, Abdul-Mahdi's change of heart signaled a
potentially dangerous and growing internal dispute among the country's majority
Shiite political factions over the nomination of al-Jaafari, who has been
criticized for not addressing Sunni complaints about the Interior Ministry.
The al-Rawafid Security Co. was attacked after gunmen arrived in a convoy of
vehicles, including several white SUVs and a pickup truck mounted with a heavy
gun, that they used to carry away the hostages, said Interior Ministry Maj.
Falah al-Mohammedawi.
He said the victims, who included bodyguards, drivers, computer technicians
and other employees, did not resist because they believed their abductors were
police special forces working for the Interior Ministry.
"It was a terrorist act," ministry Undersecretary Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Khefaji
said.
Al-Rawafid, which employs a large number of Saddam's former military
officers, is one of dozens of companies providing security against the rampant
violence in Iraq. Company headquarters are in Zayouna, a volatile and mixed
Sunni-Shiite neighborhood in east Baghdad. One of its main clients is Iraqna, a
cell phone company owned by Egyptian telecom giant Orascom.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed Tuesday in a
roadside bombing in the northwestern city of Tal Afar and a Marine died the same
day in enemy action in western Anbar province. Another Marine was killed in
Anbar on Wednesday.
Their deaths raised to at least 2,303 the number of U.S. military members who
have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to an
Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.
The grisly discovery of corpses began when an American military patrol found
18 bodies 锟斤拷 all men 锟斤拷 in a bus on a road between two dangerous and mostly Sunni
west Baghdad neighborhoods.
The bodies were brought to Yarmouk Hospital and lined up on stretchers for
identification. Most had bruises indicating they were garroted and two were
shot, said Dr. Muhanad Jawad. Police believed at least two of the men were
foreign Arabs.
Police found the bodies of six more men 锟斤拷 four of them strangled and two shot
锟斤拷 discarded in other parts of the city.
One often overlooked undercurrent of the daily bloodshed in today's Iraq is
its effect on children. At least two boys were killed Wednesday in a roadside
bombing, police said. And gunmen stopped a school bus carrying about 25 high
school girls, shooting the driver in front of his terrified passengers. He later
died of his injuries, police said.
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