| Militants in Iraq abduct Polish woman, claim killing of soldiers (28/10/2004) |
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| BAGHDAD (AFP) Islamist militants in Iraq took a Polish woman hostage and claimed the grisly killing of 11 Iraqi soldiers, as more deadly violence took hold across the country. The latest hostage drama unfolded as fighting flared between US marines and rebels in the restive city of Ramadi and US warplanes bombed the neighbouring insurgent hub of Fallujah amid growing expectations of an all-out military assault. Adding to the pressure on US allies in the violence-ridden country, militants seized a Polish woman and demanded that Warsaw withdraw its 2,500 troops from the country, prompting an immediate refusal from Poland. A threat to behead a young Japanese hostage was set to expire later Thursday after Tokyo rejected the demands of an Al-Qaeda linked group pull out its 600 troops. Militants are seeking to undermine efforts by the Iraqi government and its US-led allies to restore order before elections promised by January, with a group of British troops heading for insurgent strongholds south of Baghdad to support the effort. In a video broadcast on Arabic television station Al-Jazeera, the middle-aged hostage, identified as an Iraqi-Polish citizen, was shown flanked by two hooded armed men, one pointing a gun at her head. The Iraqi interior ministry told AFP that the woman, a long-time resident of Iraq, was kidnapped from her home in Baghdad apparently overnight Wednesday. A close ally of Washington in the Iraq conflict, Poland commands a 6,000-man multinational force south of Baghdad, of whom 2,500 are Polish soldiers. Japan, another staunch US ally, was also feeling the strain as a threat to behead a young Japanese hostage was set to expire later on Thursday. A top Japanese diplomat held talks in Jordan with an Iraqi official as part of intense efforts to win the release of Shosei Koda, 24. Meanwhile, the relief agency CARE International, which employed kidnapped Briton Margaret Hassan as its Iraq director said it had closed down all operations in Iraq. "CARE has closed down all operations in Iraq," it said in a statement issued in Amman. "Please release Mrs Hassan to her family and friends in Iraq." Previously, the agency said it had suspended its activity in the country. Hassan, a British-Iraqi national taken hostage last week, on Wednesday begged anew for the withdrawal of British soldiers and the release of Iraqi women prisoners. Her appeal came as Britain moved 850 crack troops to Babil province from Iraq's relatively calm south as US soldiers focus on wresting Fallujah from rebel control. Unable to fight US-led forces in the open, insurgents in Iraq use Western hostages as political pawns and target the country's security forces to discourage public support for the US-backed interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. In the latest attack, t he Al-Qaeda-linked Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it had killed 11 members of the Iraqi National Guard -- beheading one and shooting the others. "The ruling of God has been implemented against them by slaughtering one and killing the others by firing squad," a statement posted on a website said. Its authenticity could not be confirmed. The group warned that anyone "serving the crusaders and their puppet, the collaborator Iraqi government," would meet the same fate. The claim came just days after a group linked to Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the weekend massacre of 49 Iraqi army cadets. Desperate to crush the rebellion, US marines clashed with insurgents in Ramadi after a patrol came under fire during a pre-dawn search of houses for weapons in the Sunni Muslim bastion west of Baghdad. Doctors at a local hospital said at least two Iraqis were killed and five wounded, while the military said three marines w ere injured. In nearby Fallujah, US planes conducted another air strike overnight against what the military said was a suspected safehouse for militants loyal to Zarqawi, the alleged frontman for the Al-Qaeda terror network in Iraq. Hospitals reported three dead. US and Iraqi forces have been at the gates of Fallujah since mid-October amid talk of an imminent assault to regain the city from the grip of insurgents. In a day of violence, bomb blasts, gunfire and a rocket attack left two US soldiers and at least five Iraqis dead. The latest American deaths brought to 1,104 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003, according to a Pentagon tally. | ||
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