Two Dramatic Ambushes Kill 11 in Iraq
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- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:08:17 +0000 (UTC)
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Two Dramatic Ambushes Kill 11 in Iraq
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
AP via Yahoo - Jan 18, 2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
Two Dramatic Ambushes Kill 11 in Iraq
By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents carried out two dramatic ambushes
Wednesday, killing 11 people including two American civilians in a
roadside bombing in Basra and an attack on an Iraqi convoy in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Iraqi officials expressed hope that American hostage Jill Carroll
would eventually be released, and kidnappers freed the sister of Iraq's
Interior Minister after holding her hostage for two weeks.
The ambushes, in which gunmen also seized two Kenyan engineers, were
part of a surge in violence that left scores of Iraqis dead across the
country Wednesday.
In the most gruesome development, police said militants used this
week's downing of a U.S. helicopter to carve out a killing field north
of Baghdad, slaying more than 40 people on remote roads that Iraqis
were forced to use after American troops cordoned off the crash zone.
Thirty people were dragged from their cars Wednesday at crude
checkpoints erected on unpaved roads and shot dead execution-style in
farming areas in Nibaei, a town near Dujail, about 50 miles north of
Baghdad, said police Lt. Qahtan al-Hashmawi.
Since Monday's crash of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter that
killed its two pilots near Mishahda, 25 miles north of Baghdad,
American and Iraqi forces cordoned off a large section of the main
road near Dujail, police and eyewitnesses said.
More than a dozen other Iraqis died Wednesday in attacks linked to the
insurgency.
The increased violence came as authorities prepare to announce the
results this week of the Dec. 15 election. U.S. and Iraqi officials
expect more attacks as religious and ethnic groups jockey for power in
the new government.
In the boldest attack, gunmen opened fire on a convoy of the mobile
telephone company Iraqna, killing six security guards and three
drivers in the Nafaq al-Shurta district of western Baghdad.
Naguib Sawiris, chairman of the Egyptian communications firm that
controls Iraqna, said the attackers seized the two Kenyans.
The two American civilians were killed in a roadside bombing in the
southern city of Basra. They worked for the Texas-based security
company DynCorp and were training Iraqi police. A third American was
seriously wounded in the attack, the U.S. Embassy said.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene said two
four-wheel-drive vehicles were targeted. The area was surrounded by
heavily armed British forces, whose main base in Iraq is in Basra.
The killings occurred as a joint American-Iraqi investigation was
under way to find Carroll, the 28-year-old American journalist who was
abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad. The freelance reporter for The Christian
Science Monitor was seen in a video aired Tuesday by Al-Jazeera
television.
Al-Jazeera said the silent 20-second video included a threat to kill
Carroll in 72 hours unless U.S. authorities release all women
detainees in Iraq. U.S. officials said eight women were in security
detention and none had been freed as of Wednesday night.
Nevertheless, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, a deputy interior minister,
spoke hopefully about prospects for Carroll's release.
"Efforts are continuing to find the American journalist," he said. "We
cannot say more because of the sensitivity of the matter, but God
willing, the end will be positive."
President Bush
ignored shouted questions Wednesday about what his administration is
doing to find Carroll. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said her
safe return was a priority for the administration" but refused to say
more "because of the sensitivity of the situation."
David Cook, the Washington bureau chief for the Christian Science
Monitor, said at a news conference Wednesday that Carroll's work has
demonstrated she is respectful of Arab culture and people, and the
newspaper has shown it treats different cultures and viewpoints
fairly.
He did not answer directly whether the newspaper was involved in any
negotiations for her release but told reporters: "the Monitor is
undertaking strenuous efforts on Jill's behalf ... taking advantage of
every opportunity we have at our disposal."
Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 240 foreigners and killed
at least 39 of them. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, more Iraqis have
been abducted either by insurgents or gangs seeking ransoms.
On Wednesday, the sister of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr was released
and was at home, said Ali al-Khaqani, a secretary to Jabr. He refused
to give details, including her name, when she was released or whether
ransom was paid. She was abducted Jan. 3 in an attack in which a
bodyguard was killed.
Also Wednesday, Iraqi officials confirmed that 35 men rejected for
membership in the Iraqi police were abducted Monday by masked gunmen
who stopped their bus en route from Baghdad to Samarra north of the
capital.
A U.S. soldier based in Baghdad died of non-combat-related wounds
Tuesday, the military said. At least 2,221 members of the U.S.
military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according
to an AP count.
In other violence:
_Two policemen were killed and five were wounded when a suicide bomber
targeted a police patrol near the Baghdad home of Shiite politician
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
_The bodies of five men, all wearing civilian clothes with bullet
wounds to the head, were found floating in the Qaid River near Swera,
25 miles south of Baghdad, said Kut Hospital morgue employee Hadi
al-Itabi.
_Three Iraqi police and an Iraqi civilian were killed when a roadside
bomb struck a patrol in Saadiya, 80 miles north of Baghdad. Four
police officers were wounded.
_The bodies of three men, including a Sunni Arab leader related to
Iraq's defense minister, were found Wednesday with gunshot wounds to
the head in a Baghdad apartment, police said.
*
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