Iraq savagery continues
Gunmen in Iraq kidnapped a Lebanese-American businessman today – the second US citizen seized this week in Baghdad – as the country’s almost daily routine of kidnapping and murder continued.
Militants released a tape showing the beheading of an Iraqi officer as a warning to those who deal with “the infidel” Americans.
And an unknown group claimed it had beheaded three Iraqi National Guardsmen.
Elsewhere, a US soldier was killed and another wounded in a roadside bombing 12 miles south of the capital.
A suicide driver detonated his vehicle at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport, injuring nine Iraqis and prompting US troops to close the main route into the city for hours.
US jets were in action again late Wednesday over Fallujah, striking insurgent targets in the northeastern and southern parts of the city where American forces are said to be gearing up for a major assault.
The violence served as grim reminder of Iraq’s rapidly deteriorating security situation, which President Bush must address now that he has won his long electoral contest against Senator John Kerry.
Radim Sadeq, an American of Lebanese origin who worked for a mobile phone company, was grabbed at about midnight on Tuesday when he answered the door of his home in Baghdad’s Mansour neighbourhood, officials said. No group claimed responsibility.
It was the second abduction this week in Mansour, where many foreign companies are based. On Monday, gunmen stormed the two-storey compound of a Saudi company, abducting six people, including an unidentified American, a Nepalese, a Filipino and three Iraqis, two of whom were later released. No claim has been made for the kidnappings.
More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped and more than 30 of them killed in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s regime fell in April last year. At least six of the foreigners were beheaded by followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who has sworn allegiance to al-Qaida.
As the wave of abductions continues, another militant group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, posted a videotape on a Web site today showing the beheading of man it said was an Iraqi army major captured in the northern city of Mosul.
A statement by the group called Major Hussein Shanoun an ”apostate” and said he confessed to taking part in attacks against insurgents on orders of the Americans.
Just before his death, the victim was shown warning Iraqi soldiers and police soldiers against “dealing with the infidel troops”, meaning the Americans.
In another video, aired today on Al-Jazeera television, a previously unknown group calling itself the Brigades of Iraq’s Honorables, said it beheaded three Iraqi National Guards, accusing them of spying for the Americans.
The broadcast showed three men holding up what appeared to be army identification cards sitting in front of a hooded man who read a statement.
The video also showed the beheading of the three men, but the network declined to air that footage, the Al-Jazeera newscaster said.
In Jordan, a government spokeswoman said four Jordanian drivers were kidnapped in Iraq and two others were shot at by unknown assailants.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks on Iraq’s US-trained security forces, who the Americans hope will assume greater responsibility to enable Washington to begin drawing down its forces – now at their highest levels since the summer of 2003.
More than 85% of the estimated 165,700 multinational troops here are Americans, despite US efforts to encourage other countries to share the burden of securing and rebuilding Iraq.
Hungary’s prime minister said today his country will withdraw its 300 non-combat troops by the end of March. Hungary had agreed to extend their deployment from an original deadline of December 31 so they could help maintain security during elections in January.
Elsewhere, attackers fired a mortar round at an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in Najaf’s old city, injuring two soldiers.
It was the first such attack in the centre of the Shiite holy city since a peace agreement last August ended weeks of fighting between US troops and Shiite militiamen.
In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, residents said US soldiers clashed with gunmen today in the city centre. Four Iraqis were killed and two injured, said Ahmed Jadour of the Samarra General Hospital.
To the west of the capital, US forces are preparing for a major offensive against Fallujah and other Sunni militant strongholds in hopes of curbing the insurgency ahead of January’s election.
The late night attacks on Fallujah followed air raids earlier in the day that struck an insurgent command post a weapons cache site in the city was destroyed late Tuesday, the US military said.
