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One Iraqi beheaded as at least four others killed in another violent day
Three senior Iraqi officials were abducted, a man who worked for the U.S. occupation was beheaded and at least four others were killed in another day of violent incidents, Iraqi officials said Saturday.
Authorities in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit said Saturday that gunmen abducted a deputy governor of a central Iraqi province and two other top officials as they traveled to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most prominent Shiite leader, in the holy city of Najaf to discuss upcoming elections.
According to The AP, the delegation was stopped and the members kidnapped about 65 kilometers south of Baghdad on Friday. The U.S. military said the delegation was traveling in two cars - one of which managed to escape the ambush.
In Baqouba, armed men broke into the house of a translator working with the U.S. Army and then beheaded him, police said Saturday. An Iraqi policeman was killed by masked gunmen as he left his house in Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood.
Elsewhere, a booby-trapped car went off Saturday at a gas station in Mahaweel, about 55 kilometers south of Baghdad. One man was killed and several others were injured, police said.
In Baghdad's western district of Khadraa, gunmen shot dead Abboud Khalaf al-Lahibi, deputy secretary-general of the National Front for Iraqi tribes - a group representing several Iraqi tribes, said his aide, Ibrahim al-Farhan. A bodyguard was killed and three other people were injured in the attack, he said.
Also Saturday, gunmen kidnapped Mohammed Khodr, a representative of the Human Rights Organization in Iraq, in the town of Riyadh, southwest of Kirkuk, police said.
A U.S. soldier also was killed Friday in a "non-hostile" vehicle accident in the western province of Anbar, the U.S. military said.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/178846
According to The AP, the delegation was stopped and the members kidnapped about 65 kilometers south of Baghdad on Friday. The U.S. military said the delegation was traveling in two cars - one of which managed to escape the ambush.
In Baqouba, armed men broke into the house of a translator working with the U.S. Army and then beheaded him, police said Saturday. An Iraqi policeman was killed by masked gunmen as he left his house in Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood.
Elsewhere, a booby-trapped car went off Saturday at a gas station in Mahaweel, about 55 kilometers south of Baghdad. One man was killed and several others were injured, police said.
In Baghdad's western district of Khadraa, gunmen shot dead Abboud Khalaf al-Lahibi, deputy secretary-general of the National Front for Iraqi tribes - a group representing several Iraqi tribes, said his aide, Ibrahim al-Farhan. A bodyguard was killed and three other people were injured in the attack, he said.
Also Saturday, gunmen kidnapped Mohammed Khodr, a representative of the Human Rights Organization in Iraq, in the town of Riyadh, southwest of Kirkuk, police said.
A U.S. soldier also was killed Friday in a "non-hostile" vehicle accident in the western province of Anbar, the U.S. military said.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/178846
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Earlier, an explosion at a house south of Mosul which killed 14 people and wounded five was blamed on a US air attack. The US military said it was investigating the blast and would have a statement later today.
The house owner, Ali Yousef, said the airstrike happened at around 2.30am local time in the village 30 miles south of Mosul. US troops immediately came and surrounded the area, blocking access for four hours.
The brick house was reduced to a pile of rubble, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. By this evening all 14 dead had been buried in a nearby cemetery, Yousef said.
Yesterday, US Air Force Brigadier General Erv Lessel warned of an expected rise in attacks in the run-up to elections on January 30.
“I think a worst case is where they have a series of horrific attacks that cause mass casualties in some spectacular fashion in the days leading up to the elections,” he said.
“If you look over the last six months, they have steadily escalated the barbaric nature of the attacks they have been committing. A year ago, you didn’t see these kinds of horrific things.”
The escalating insurgency in Iraq is believed to be led by minority Sunnis, who dominated the country during Saddam Hussein’s regime. The militants are against the landmark election later this month.
In the election – the first democratic vote in Iraq since the country was formed in 1932 – the Sunnis are certain to lose their dominance to the Shiites, who comprise 60% of Iraq’s 26 million people.
This week has seen a string of assassinations, suicide car bombings and other assaults that killed nearly 100 people, mostly Iraqi security troops, who are seen by the militants as collaborators with the coalition occupiers.
Authorities in Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit said today that gunmen abducted a deputy governor of a central Iraqi province, two other senior officials and their driver as they were returning from a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most prominent Shiite leader, in the holy city of Najaf to discuss national elections.
The delegation was stopped and the members kidnapped about 40 miles south of Baghdad on today. The area is in the so-called “triangle of death”, a string of Sunni-controlled towns that have been the scene of frequent attacks.
The US military said the delegation was travelling in two cars of which one managed the escape militants’ ambush.
“Those insurgents and terrorists who intimidate and resort to kidnapping public officials are the true enemies of the Iraqi people,” said US military spokesman Major Neal O’Brien.
In Baqouba, insurgents beheaded a translator who was working with the US army after breaking into his house, police said today. An Iraqi policeman was killed by masked gunmen as he was leaving his house in the southern Dora neighbourhood of Baghdad.
Colonel Khamees Jassim Khirbit, a ranking police official in the tense city of Ramadi was gunned down and his car was set ablaze, police said. Another senior police official, Lieutenant Colonel Abed Ahmed, who supervised police operations in the volatile Anbar province, was shot dead on a street in central Ramadi.
A Basra municipal council member, Majid Hilal al-Tamimi, was seriously injured today after gunmen opened fire at him outside the City Hall, police officials said. One of l-Tamimi’s guards was killed and his driver also died.
A booby-trapped car blew up today at a petrol station in Mahaweel, about 35 miles south of Baghdad. One man was killed and several others were injured, police said.
In Baghdad’s western neighbourhood of Khadraa, gunmen killed Abboud Khalaf al-Lahibi, deputy secretary-general of the National Front for Iraqi tribes – a group representing several Iraqi tribes – his aide, Ibrahim al-Farhan, said. A bodyguard was killed and three others wounded in the attack, he said.
Also today, gunmen kidnapped Mohammed Khodr, a representative of the Human Rights Organisation in Iraq in the town of Riyadh, some 28 miles south west of Kirkuk, police said.
The US military said today that 48 suspected insurgents were detained in separate search operations in different parts of Iraq yesterday.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3977864