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5 'kidnappers' mowed down

2006-05-11 22:06
line

Baghdad - Gunmen kidnapped 10 people in two villages in northern Iraq on Thursday, but Iraqi police said American and Iraqi forces saved seven of the hostages in an ensuing gun battle.

The hostage drama occurred in two mostly Sunni Arab villages near Baqouba.

Iraqi police said the gunmen arrived in cars and pickup trucks early on Thursday, and seized 10 young men from their homes.

According to Iraqi police reports, five of the gunmen were wounded and 36 captured. The gunmen escaped with three hostages.

The kidnappers are believed to be a Shi'ite death squad. Iraqi police said some of the gunmen belonged to radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army.

Curbing militias and death squads is a key goal of the incoming Iraqi government.

To achieve that goal, Iraqi officials plan to restructure the country's police forces under the newly formed National Police force.

Members will wear a newly-designed uniform and drive similar patrol cars, a move aimed at making it easier to identify rogue elements and death squads.

US death toll rises

Three United States soldiers were killed when roadside bombs hit two separate US army convoys southwest of Baghdad, said US military officials.

The US command also said another US soldier had died from non-combat related wounds near Mosul two days ago.

The four deaths raised the US military death toll in Iraq to 2 429.

Meanwhile, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, said Shi'ite mosques in Zubayr, southern Iraq, would be closed until Saturday.

Al-Sistani's order followed the killing of Sunni imam Sheik Khaled Ali Obeid al-Saadoun and two of his associates as they left a mosque after evening prayers.

Al-Sistani said the closings were in protest of the imam's killing, as well as other attacks against Sunnis in the mostly Shi'ite Basra province.

Shi'ite professor and daughter killed

On Wednesday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the country's feuding factions to unite against surging crime and terrorism.

Talabani said 1 091 people were killed in Baghdad last month. His office said the figure came from the Baghdad central morgue.

However, Dr Riyadh Abdul Amer, the country's ministry of health official whose office maintains morgue records, said his staff had misinterpreted the president's request and given him figures for all deaths in the Baghdad area for the month of April - including natural causes.

The Iraqi health ministry said 952 people - mostly civilians - died last month in "terrorist" violence across the country last month. The figure consists of 686 civilians, 190 insurgents, 54 policemen and 22 Iraqi soldiers.

In Thursday's violence, a Shi'ite history professor, Widad al-Shimri, and her seven-year-old daughter were killed as they drove through the city of Baqouba.

Five municipal street cleaners were killed and two others wounded in a blast in western Baghdad, said Iraqi police.

- AP

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    ROAD CLOSED between Rabie Street and Gerhard Street for sink hole repair works
 
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