IRAQ Internet video shows slaying of Turkish worker held captive

No group claimed responsibility yet for the bombing of Christian churches.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A video posted on the Internet shows a masked gunman pumping three bullets into the head of a Turkish hostage, and the Turkish truckers' union said today it would stop bringing supplies to U.S. forces in Iraq, bowing to militant demands in hopes of saving two other captive Turks.
Also today, Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric condemned as "hideous crimes" the coordinated bomb attacks on five churches in Baghdad and Mosul that killed 7 people and marked the first major attacks on Iraq's minority Christians since the insurgency began.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani said in a statement that Sunday's assaults on Christian churches "targeted Iraq's unity, stability and independence."
The unprecedented attacks against Iraq's 750,000 Christians -- hitting four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul -- appeared to confirm community members' fears they might be targeted as suspected collaborators with American forces amid a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.
The attacks on the churches signaled a change in tactics for insurgents, who have focused previous attacks on U.S. forces, Iraqi officials and police, and foreign workers. The kidnapping and slaying of the Turkish hostage was the latest bloodshed in an insurgent campaign aimed at forcing coalition forces out of Iraq and scaring foreign companies from operating here.
Withdrawing from Iraq
Several nations -- most recently the Philippines -- have withdrawn troops from Iraq amid increasing militant violence, and several companies have met militant demands to spare employees. In a separate video today, militants said they would free a Somali captive because his Kuwaiti employer agreed to cease business in Iraq.
The videotape, posted on an Islamic Web site used by militant groups, shows a man identified as a Turk kneeling in front of three armed men. The man reads a statement in Turkish, identifying himself as Murat Yuce from Ankara, the Turkish capital. He says he works for a Turkish company that subcontracted for a Jordanian firm.
"I have a word of advice for any Turk who wants to come to Iraq to work: 'You don't have to be holding a gun to be aiding the occupationist United States. ... Turkish companies should withdraw from Iraq," he says.
At the end of the statement, one of the men takes out a pistol and shoots the Turk in the side of the head. The Turk slumps to the ground, and the kidnapper shoots him in the head twice more. Blood is seen on the ground next to his head.
A black banner on the wall behind the kidnappers identifies the group as the Tawhid and Jihad, which is led by the Jordanian militant linked to Al-Qaida, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
It was not clear when the video was posted or when hostage was killed; his name did not match those of the two Turkish truck drivers kidnapped by Tawhid and Jihad last week.
Negotiations
The head of Turkey's International Transportation Association, Cahit Soysal, said today that by agreeing to stop working with U.S. forces in Iraq, Turkish truckers hope the kidnappers will now release the two other drivers.
He said trucks carrying supplies not destined to the U.S. forces would not be affected. Turkish trucks mostly transport fuel and jet fuel to the U.S. troops, an official from the group said.
Soysal said 200 to 300 Turkish trucks had been bringing supplies to U.S. forces in Iraq daily, among the many vehicles crossing the border with goods for the military and contractors involved with Iraqi reconstruction. Many of the more than 70 foreigners abducted by militants have been truck drivers, more vulnerable to attack than heavily armed troops.
Threats
Al-Zarqawi's group also said today it would release a Somali truck driver it kidnapped because the Kuwaiti company for which he works agreed to stop working in Iraq, al-Jazeera television said. Tawhid and Jihad had threatened in a video aired July 29 to behead Ali Ahmed Moussa within 48 hours if his company failed to leave. It was not known when he was kidnapped.
In the video broadcast today on the Arabic-language network, Moussa appears kneeling before three black-clad, masked militants armed with assault rifles. One of the militants reads a statement that group is releasing Moussa "in appreciation of the attitudes of the Somali government and people toward Iraq and the Kuwaiti company's commitment to stop doing business in Iraq."
There was no word on when the Somali would be released, and his Kuwaiti employer has not been publicly identified.
Tawhid and Jihad has claimed responsibility before for a number of bloody attacks across Iraq and, since April, the beheadings of several foreigners, including U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean translator Kim Sun-il and Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov.
Sunday, Iraqi gunmen released one of two Lebanese businessmen, a day after they were snatched on a Baghdad street. The fate of the other hostage is unknown.
Church bombings
No group has claimed responsibility for the Christian church attacks, a wave of explosions -- at least four of them car bombings -- that began after 6 p.m. Sunday as parishioners gathered for services. The blasts shattered stained-glass windows and sent churchgoers screaming into the streets.
The explosions came just minutes apart and hit four churches in Baghdad -- two in Karada, one in the Dora neighborhood and one in New Baghdad. A fifth church was hit in Mosul, about 220 miles north of the capital. The attacks did not appear to be suicide bombings, U.S. military and Iraqi officials said.
The Baghdad church attacks killed 10 people and injured more than 40 others, according to a U.S. military statement. The Mosul blast killed one person and injured 11 others, police Maj. Fawaz Fanaan said.
The Vatican called the attacks "terrible and worrisome," said spokesman the Rev. Ciro Benedettini.
Condemnation
Muslim clerics condemned the violence and offered condolences to the dwindling Christian community. Many of Iraq's Christians have already fled to neighboring Jordan and Syria to escape violence in the insurgency-wracked nation.
"This is a cowardly act and targets all Iraqis," Abdul Hadi al-Daraji, spokesman for radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, told Al-Jazeera television.
The more senior al-Sistani also spoke out. "We condemn and reproach these hideous crimes and deem necessary the collaboration of everyone -- the government and the people -- in putting an end to aggression on Iraqis," said the cleric, who is based in the southern city of Najaf.
"We assert the importance of respecting the rights of Christian civilians and other religious minorities and reaffirm their right to live in their home country Iraq in security and peace."
Separate violence on Sunday killed 24 people, including an American soldier, and wounded dozens more. The toll included a suicide car bombing outside a Mosul police station that killed five people and wounded 53 and clashes in Fallujah between U.S. troops and insurgents that killed 12 Iraqis and wounded 39 others.
Also, a roadside bombing near the town of Samarra hit a passing patrol, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding one other, the military said. At least 911 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003.
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