Seraphim
06-26-2004, 03:57 PM
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040626/capt.lon81706261933.iraq_kidnapped_turks_lon817.jpg
Image from a video released to the Al-Jazeera television network Saturday June 26, 2004 showing three Turkish men kidnapped by the Tawhid and Jihad movement, allegedly led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A statement issued with the video threatened to execute the men within 72 hours unless Turkish companies ceased doing business with US forces in Iraq (news - web sites), an Al-Jazeera anchor said. The men, kneeling foreground, are holding their passports to the camera. (AP Photo/ Al-Jazeera via APTN)
By Andrew Marshall
BAGHDAD (*******) - Militants loyal to suspected al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said on Saturday they had seized three Turkish hostages and would behead them unless Turks (news - web sites) stopped working with U.S.-led forces in Iraq (news - web sites).
In the latest attack aimed at derailing the transition to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, guerrillas detonated a car bomb in the town of Hilla, 62 miles south of Baghdad, killing 17 Iraqis and wounding 40, the U.S. army said.
The Al Jazeera satellite channel showed footage of the three men said to be Turkish hostages crouching before masked gunmen and holding up their passports. It said it had received the footage and a statement from Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, threatening to kill the Turkish captives within 72 hours.
Zarqawi's group beheaded a South Korean hostage earlier this week after Seoul rejected a demand to withdraw its forces from Iraq, and last month decapitated a U.S. captive. Both killings were filmed in footage posted on Web sites used by Islamists.
Zarqawi has also claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks, most recently a wave of suicide bombings and armed assaults in five cities on Thursday that killed more than 100 Iraqis and three U.S. soldiers.
Turkey is not part of the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq but many Turkish contractors work as drivers and support staff for American forces. President Bush (news - web sites) is due to attend a NATO (news - web sites) meeting in Istanbul on Monday.
Jazeera said the statement it received stated the hostages would be killed unless "Turkish forces and companies that support the occupation forces in Iraq" left by the deadline.
"A VERY EFFECTIVE TERRORIST"
Washington has put a $10 million bounty on Zarqawi's head.
"He remains the number one target inside this country. He is a very effective terrorist," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. military in Iraq, told a news conference in Baghdad on Saturday.
U.S. forces have mounted three "precision strikes" in the rebellious Iraqi city of Falluja over the past week aimed at destroying Zarqawi's safehouses and killing his followers.
Kimmitt said the latest strike, on Friday, may have come close to killing the Jordanian militant. He said several cars were seen driving away from the building after it was hit.
"It's the coalition's assessment that it could have been Zarqawi and his key leaders," Kimmitt said. "It may not have been. Only time will tell."
Senior military officials said 20 to 25 militants were killed in Friday's strike. But one Falluja resident at the scene said no one had been killed.
"I swear to God, nobody died here except this rabbit," said a man in an Arab robe, dangling a dead rabbit in one hand.
Iraqi guerrillas and tribal leaders in Falluja have denied that Zarqawi is in the city. "This is a lie to excuse the strikes by occupation planes on the houses of citizens," said a statement from the General Council of Falluja Tribal Leaders.
Hundreds of Iraqis were killed in Falluja in April in fierce fighting between U.S. Marines and guerrillas.
The civilian death toll caused an outcry in Iraq and a truce was agreed under which Marines pulled out of the city and handed responsibility for security to an Iraqi force. Critics say Falluja has become a safe haven for foreign militants.
CAR BOMB BLASTS
Guerrillas have mounted a series of attacks this month as the June 30 formal handover of sovereignty to Iraqis approaches.
Witnesses in Hilla said the car bomb exploded in a busy street on Saturday evening. Wounded staggered from the scene and sirens wailed as the casualties were ferried to hospital.
Earlier on Saturday insurgents stormed the offices of two political parties in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.
An attack on the offices of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shi'ite group that has been cooperating with the U.S.-led administration, killed three guards and wounded two, officials said.
Guerrillas also blew up a building used by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party in Baquba.
Kimmitt said six guerrillas were killed in Saturday's fighting in the town. He said one of the dead fighters was found with TNT strapped to his body.
In Arbil, 220 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb on Saturday morning killed a shopkeeper and wounded dozens of people including Mahmoud Mohammed, culture minister in the Kurdish regional government.
"I was on my way to the ministry. There was a car bomb. The blast hit my car from outside. The people who were with me were injured too," Mohammed said from his hospital bed where he was recovering from a head wound.
"It is like any terrorist attack. They want to end peace and democracy," he said. "The only language they know is violence." (Additional reporting by Seb Walker in Arbil and Miral Fahmy in Dubai)
Image from a video released to the Al-Jazeera television network Saturday June 26, 2004 showing three Turkish men kidnapped by the Tawhid and Jihad movement, allegedly led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A statement issued with the video threatened to execute the men within 72 hours unless Turkish companies ceased doing business with US forces in Iraq (news - web sites), an Al-Jazeera anchor said. The men, kneeling foreground, are holding their passports to the camera. (AP Photo/ Al-Jazeera via APTN)
By Andrew Marshall
BAGHDAD (*******) - Militants loyal to suspected al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said on Saturday they had seized three Turkish hostages and would behead them unless Turks (news - web sites) stopped working with U.S.-led forces in Iraq (news - web sites).
In the latest attack aimed at derailing the transition to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, guerrillas detonated a car bomb in the town of Hilla, 62 miles south of Baghdad, killing 17 Iraqis and wounding 40, the U.S. army said.
The Al Jazeera satellite channel showed footage of the three men said to be Turkish hostages crouching before masked gunmen and holding up their passports. It said it had received the footage and a statement from Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, threatening to kill the Turkish captives within 72 hours.
Zarqawi's group beheaded a South Korean hostage earlier this week after Seoul rejected a demand to withdraw its forces from Iraq, and last month decapitated a U.S. captive. Both killings were filmed in footage posted on Web sites used by Islamists.
Zarqawi has also claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks, most recently a wave of suicide bombings and armed assaults in five cities on Thursday that killed more than 100 Iraqis and three U.S. soldiers.
Turkey is not part of the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq but many Turkish contractors work as drivers and support staff for American forces. President Bush (news - web sites) is due to attend a NATO (news - web sites) meeting in Istanbul on Monday.
Jazeera said the statement it received stated the hostages would be killed unless "Turkish forces and companies that support the occupation forces in Iraq" left by the deadline.
"A VERY EFFECTIVE TERRORIST"
Washington has put a $10 million bounty on Zarqawi's head.
"He remains the number one target inside this country. He is a very effective terrorist," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. military in Iraq, told a news conference in Baghdad on Saturday.
U.S. forces have mounted three "precision strikes" in the rebellious Iraqi city of Falluja over the past week aimed at destroying Zarqawi's safehouses and killing his followers.
Kimmitt said the latest strike, on Friday, may have come close to killing the Jordanian militant. He said several cars were seen driving away from the building after it was hit.
"It's the coalition's assessment that it could have been Zarqawi and his key leaders," Kimmitt said. "It may not have been. Only time will tell."
Senior military officials said 20 to 25 militants were killed in Friday's strike. But one Falluja resident at the scene said no one had been killed.
"I swear to God, nobody died here except this rabbit," said a man in an Arab robe, dangling a dead rabbit in one hand.
Iraqi guerrillas and tribal leaders in Falluja have denied that Zarqawi is in the city. "This is a lie to excuse the strikes by occupation planes on the houses of citizens," said a statement from the General Council of Falluja Tribal Leaders.
Hundreds of Iraqis were killed in Falluja in April in fierce fighting between U.S. Marines and guerrillas.
The civilian death toll caused an outcry in Iraq and a truce was agreed under which Marines pulled out of the city and handed responsibility for security to an Iraqi force. Critics say Falluja has become a safe haven for foreign militants.
CAR BOMB BLASTS
Guerrillas have mounted a series of attacks this month as the June 30 formal handover of sovereignty to Iraqis approaches.
Witnesses in Hilla said the car bomb exploded in a busy street on Saturday evening. Wounded staggered from the scene and sirens wailed as the casualties were ferried to hospital.
Earlier on Saturday insurgents stormed the offices of two political parties in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.
An attack on the offices of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shi'ite group that has been cooperating with the U.S.-led administration, killed three guards and wounded two, officials said.
Guerrillas also blew up a building used by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party in Baquba.
Kimmitt said six guerrillas were killed in Saturday's fighting in the town. He said one of the dead fighters was found with TNT strapped to his body.
In Arbil, 220 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb on Saturday morning killed a shopkeeper and wounded dozens of people including Mahmoud Mohammed, culture minister in the Kurdish regional government.
"I was on my way to the ministry. There was a car bomb. The blast hit my car from outside. The people who were with me were injured too," Mohammed said from his hospital bed where he was recovering from a head wound.
"It is like any terrorist attack. They want to end peace and democracy," he said. "The only language they know is violence." (Additional reporting by Seb Walker in Arbil and Miral Fahmy in Dubai)