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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
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 Sat Jun 26, 2004 2:24 pm Zarqawi Group Kidnaps Three Turks in Iraq |
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Zarqawi Group Kidnaps Three Turks in Iraq
Saturday, June 26, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq � Terrorists loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search) were shown on Al-Jazeera television Saturday, holding three Turkish workers hostage and threatening to behead them in 72 hours, just as President Bush was arriving in Turkey for a NATO summit.
Also on Saturday, FOX News confirmed that a massive car bomb was detonated in the city of Hilla, killing at least 17 Iraqis and wounding 20.
No Americans were said to be hurt or killed by the car bomb. Vehicles surrounding the blast were on fire, and a scene of panic ensued following the explosion.
The latest in a series of abductions claimed by al-Zarqawi's movement � which has beheaded two previous hostages, an American and a South Korean � threatened to cast a shadow over the NATO summit opening in Istanbul (search) Monday, where Bush will be seeking the alliance's help in stabilizing Iraq.
Meanwhile, gunmen launched new attacks in the city of Baqouba (search), northeast of the capital � the scene of fierce fighting in a surprise offensive launched by al-Zarqawi on Thursday that left 100 people dead. In central Baghdad, insurgents killed a U.S. soldier in an attack on a patrol, the military said.
The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired a video issued by the kidnappers, showing the three Turks identifying themselves in Turkish and telling their jobs in Iraq.
In a statement with the video, al-Zarqawi's group, Tawhid and Jihad, threatened to behead the men in 72 hours unless Turkish companies withdraw from Iraq, an Al-Jazeera anchor said.
The station received the tape Saturday, an employee at the station told The Associated Press. The message did not say when or where the three were abducted. The message did not specify what time it runs out.
The three men disappeared two days ago, said a Turkish consular official in Baghdad who asked to be identified only by his surname, Gungor. He said he had no further information.
The abductions are likely to stoke anti-war sentiment in Turkey, where Bush is already extremely unpopular. Hours ahead of Bush's arrival in Ankara, police battled scores of protesters Saturday, eventually firing tear gas to disperse them.
NATO delegates announced a preliminary deal to give the new Iraqi government, led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi (search), help in combatting the militant insurgency � mainly by training Iraqi security forces. The deal is expected to be approved during the summit, which begins Monday.
News of the new abduction came just as the body of Kim Sun-Il (search), a South Korean worker decapitated by al-Zarqawi's followers last week, were brought back to his hometown, Busan.
His slaying has prompted nightly vigils in the Korean capital, Seoul, urging the government to call off its plans to send 3,000 troops to Iraq beginning in August.
Last month, al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg (search). And on Thursday, fighters loyal to al-Zarqawi launched a wave of coordinated attacks in five cities in Iraq, battling with U.S. troops who eventually regained control but only after some 100 people, including three Americans were killed.
The fighting came only days ahead of Wednesday's handover of sovereignty from Iraq's American occupiers to Allawi's government.
Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded in the Kurdish stronghold of Irbil, killing one person and injuring 18 people, including the culture minister of the pro-American Kurdistan Democratic Party (search).
In the new violence in Baqouba, gunmen attacked the offices of two political parties and other buildings. At least nine people died, among them six insurgents, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
In Baqouba, as gunfire crackled nearby, men could be seen carrying bloodied victims on blankets to the city's small hospital in video footage from Associated Press Television News. A rifle-toting guerrilla in an Arab dishdasha robe ran through a street with belts of ammunition draped over his shoulders.
Insurgents hit the offices of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (search) � one of the country's biggest Shiite parties � with shoulder-fired grenade-launchers, said party member Maitham Ibrahim. Three party members died and two were injured, hospital officials said.
Gunmen also overran the offices of Allawi's political party, the Iraq National Accord (search), setting off an explosion that sent smoke and flames leaping from the building's third-story windows, witnesses said. No one was hurt.
U.S. Maj. Neal O'Brien, spokesman of the 1st Infantry Division, said four guerrillas � one wearing an explosives-packed vest � also attacked Baqouba's blue-domed government building. Guards fired back, killing the four, he said. Two other insurgents died in an attack on a police station, O'Brien said.
In Mahmoudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, insurgents killed two Iraqi National Guardsmen in an ambush. Another police officer was killed in a separate attack there, said the director of the Mahmoudiyah general hospital, Dawoud al-Taei.
Elsewhere, an American supply convoy made a wrong turn, mistakenly entering the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi said. Militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fired on the convoy, which didn't fire back. Two civilian bystanders were wounded.
Najaf has been relatively quiet since an agreement several weeks ago to end clashes between U.S. soldiers and radical Shiite militiamen.
In the capital, gunmen attacked a police station in the New Baghdad area but officers fought back in a rare show of force. The attackers fled, and police arrested three Iraqis, an Interior Ministry official said.
Meanwhile, repair crews patched up the larger of two southern crude oil pipelines damaged by saboteurs and resumed pumping to offshore terminals, an official with the South Oil Company said Saturday.
Hours after the pumping resumed, attackers blasted another small crude oil pipeline that feeds into domestic storage tanks, near the town of Latifiyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, said 1st Lt. Alaa Hussein.
In the wave of violence ahead of Wednesday's transfer of sovereignty, most attacks have been directed at the ill-equipped Iraqi security forces � the foundation of the new government's power.
The United States has recently issued about 55,000 armored flak jackets to Iraqi forces, a senior U.S. commander said on condition of anonymity.
U.S. officials believe al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian extremist, is operating from Fallujah, which emerged as a virtual green zone for insurgents after U.S. Marines gave up their siege of the city in April having failed to rout rebels there.
U.S. jets launched an airstrike against a suspected al-Zarqawi hideout in Fallujah on Friday � the third such strike in less than a week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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