BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP):
UNITED STATES and Iraqi forces yesterday rescued seven Sunni Arab men seized by suspected Shi'ite militiamen near Baghdad, part of a campaign to suppress sectarian death squads responsible for hundreds of deaths this year. Three U.S. soldiers died in blasts south of the capital.
Iraqi police said the trouble started when dozens of gunmen, some of them wearing military uniforms, raided two Sunni villages near Khan Bani Saad, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Baghdad, and abducted 10 young men.
Village leaders and clerics alerted police and U.S. soldiers, who rushed to the scene, clashed with the gunmen and rescued seven of the hostages, police said. Three others were missing and presumed taken by some of the gunmen who got away, police said.
U.S. troops killed at least one of the kidnappers and wounded another, Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher, commander of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor, said. Some of the hostages had been severely beaten, Fisher told Associated Press TV News.
More than 30 people were taken into custody, Iraqi police said, and interrogators were trying to determine their identities. Some of the gunmen told police they belonged to the Shi'ite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and had come from Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.
However, Fisher said the incident may have been "tribal in nature." He did not elaborate, but tensions have been running high in the area for months between Shiite and Sunni communities in religiously mixed Diyala province.
Whatever the motive, the incident serves as an example of the chaotic security situation in the Baghdad area, home to large communities of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. With the rise in sectarian tensions, much of the violence has shifted from Sunni insurgent strongholds such as Anbar province to Baghdad and other areas with a mixed population.
The shift in the violence has impacted heavily on civilians, many of whom have been targeted simply because of their religious affiliation. According to the Health Ministry, 952 people were killed nationwide last month in "terrorist" violence, among them 686 civilians.
By comparison, ministry figures showed that 548 civilians were killed nationwide in January, 545 in February and 769 in March.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the U.S. command, said attacks against civilians were up by about 80 percent over the level of six months ago. He blamed the increase on al-Qaida in Iraq and its Jordanian-born leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who he said were trying to ignite a Sunni-Shiite war.
"We acknowledge that the primary targets of the insurgency are the innocent men, women and children of Iraq," Lynch told reporters. He said attacks against civilians were aimed at enflaming sectarian hatred "and then folks like the militias, either Shiite militias or Sunni militias, are carrying out retaliatory attacks and killing innocent men women and children."
The three U.S. soldiers died when roadside bombs hit two separate U.S. Army convoys southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The U.S. command also announced that another U.S. soldier died Tuesday from non-combat related wounds suffered near Mosul.
Their deaths raised to at least 2,429 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
President Jalal Talabani has appealed to the nation's clerics to condemn sectarian violence, which has raised fears of all-out civil war.
In a show of sectarian solidarity, Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, ordered all Shiite mosques in the mostly Sunni town of Zubayr to close through Saturday to protest the assassination of a Sunni cleric there.
Al-Sistani's order followed the slaying of Sheik Khaled Ali Obeid al-Saadoun, who was gunned down Wednesday with two associates as he left a mosque after evening prayers. The Iranian-born ayatollah has often spoken out against sectarian violence and played a key role in curbing reprisal attacks after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.
The three U.S. soldiers died when roadside bombs hit two separate U.S. Army convoys southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The U.S. command also announced that another U.S. soldier died Tuesday from non-combat related wounds suffered near Mosul.
Their deaths raised to at least 2,429 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
U.S. officials hope that the new unity government of Shiites, Kurds and Shiites can win public confidence and in time quell the violence so that American and other international troops can go home.
The framework of the government was put in place last month with the appointment of Shiite activist Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister-designate. Al-Maliki is trying to put together a new Cabinet, but the process has bogged down over the choice to head the key ministries of defence and interior.
Shiite officials said al-Maliki may ask parliament to approve the rest of his Cabinet within a few days while negotiations continue on the two contested ministries.
Also Thursday, insurgents attacked U.S. Marines from an abandoned hotel in Haqlaniyah, 220 kilometres (140 miles) northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The Marines responded with with small arms fire, a shoulder-fired rocket and an air strike on the hotel.
There were no U.S. casualties but one child suffered minor injuries, the military said.
In other violence Thursday according to police:
_Five municipal street cleaners were killed and two others wounded in a blast in western Baghdad, police 1st Lt. Thaeir Mahmoud said.
_A Shiite woman professor, Widad al-Shimri, and her 7-year-old daughter were slain as they drove Thursday through Baqouba, police said.
_A professor of Islamic law, Dr. Khalaf al-Jumaili, was shot dead after assailants stopped his car in Fallujah.
_One policeman was killed with gunmen fired on a police station in Kirkuk.
_Police killed a man who tried to plant a bomb under the car of Baqouba's mayor.
AP-NY-05-11-06 1458EDT
