Date: July 31, 2006 11:38:39 AM PDT
Subject: [SPY NEWS] Intelligence official among 9 killed in Iraq
At least 29 kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad
Updated Mon. Jul. 31 2006 8:18 AM ET
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gunmen kidnapped 29 people in Baghdad on Monday, while Iraq's latest wave of violence killed 19 people, including four Iraqi soldiers in a suicide bombing.
The interior minister faced calls for his dismissal because of the worsening security crisis in Baghdad and surrounding towns, mostly blamed on sectarian conflict between Shiites and Sunnis.
Gunmen in military fatigues drove to the main shopping area of Karrada in 15 vehicles and split into two groups, one going into a mobile phone shop and the other into the office next door of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce, said police Lt. Thair Mahmoud.
They kidnapped 15 staff and customers from the shop and 11 from the chamber, he said. All were believed to be Iraqis. No other details were available.
In a second kidnapping, gunmen in commando uniforms, blocked a car carrying a millionaire businessman and his two sons, seizing the three in southeastern Baghdad, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majeed.
Kidnappings for ransom have become rampant in recent months. Abductions are believed to be a major source of income not only for criminal gangs but also insurgents fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The suicide bomber detonated a pickup truck near an Iraqi observation post outside the northern city of Mosul, killing four soldiers and wounding six, said an army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release such information.
A day earlier, gunmen ordered four policemen and a lawyer out of their car and beheaded them near the northern town of Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, said police Col. Burhan Tayeb.
Several key Iraqi parliament members are pressing to replace Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, who is responsible for police and paramilitary commandos, at the forefront of the fight against extremists in the capital.
Al-Bolani, a Shiite, was chosen for the sensitive post after protracted negotiations among the various religious and ethnic parties within the national unity government. The interior and defense posts were filled in June, nearly three weeks after the rest of the Cabinet.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged Iraqis to defeat sectarian forces in a speech Monday.
"The power is in our hands ... and we will continue hitting terrorism and ... building Iraq brick by brick on the basis on equality and justice," he said.
Random killings have become an almost daily occurrence.
On Monday, gunmen in a sedan shot and killed two vendors selling cooking gas cylinders in Baghdad's western Yarmouk neighborhood, police said. A few hours earlier, gunmen opened fire on municipal street sweepers in the capital, killing one and injuring two.
An hour earlier, a senior intelligence official was shot dead in his car in Baghdad. Two people were killed in other shootings, and a roadside bomb killed a policeman.
Police also discovered the bullet-riddled bodies of three men in the Baghdad area. Two had their hands and feet tied, and the third was fished out of the Tigris river, his body showing signs of torture.
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