IRAQ Attacks take toll on U.S.

A female soldier faces a hearing in the prisoner abuse scandal.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A mortar attack in Baghdad and two assaults on U.S. forces northeast of the capital killed one soldier and wounded nine others, the military said today, as militants showed no sign of letting up in attacks against Americans ahead of the June 30 transfer of sovereignty.
South Korea, meanwhile, said today it will evacuate all of its citizens working for businesses in Iraq by early July as the country awaited word on a South Korean man held by militants there. The government said there were about 22 businessmen still in Iraq.
Iran said today it plans to prosecute eight British navy sailors serving in Iraq on charges of entering Iranian waters, Iran's state-run television said today.
The eight were detained in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway Monday as they were delivering a patrol boat for the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. The waterway runs along the border between Iran and Iraq.
Two attacks
Troops were attacked twice Monday in the predominantly Sunni Muslim city of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, said Maj. Neal O'Brien of the 1st Infantry Division.
In the first attack, one soldier was wounded by an improvised explosive device -- a homemade bomb. In the second attack, two soldiers were wounded by small arms fire and evacuated to the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, O'Brien said. All three are in stable condition.
Also Monday, a mortar attack in north-central Baghdad killed a U.S. soldier and wounded six other soldiers, the military said. A contract worker was also wounded.
Prison scandal
The U.S. command said today that the Army scheduled the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing for Spc. Sabrina Harman in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal case.
The session, known as an Article 32 hearing, will determine if the 26-year-old will face court-martial.
The session will be held Thursday, a military spokeswoman, Lt. Beatriz Yarrish, said. A military official said the defendant undergoing the hearing was Megan Ambuhl, 29, of Centreville, Virginia, but Yarrish said her Article 32 hearing has aleady been held.
Harman is one of seven defendants who are accused of abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad.
After a pretrial hearing in Baghdad on Monday, lawyers for two of the defendants said their clients were following orders by senior officers and military intelligence.
Harman, of Lorton, Va., a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, is seen in photos smiling over a pile of naked prisoners.
Abducted Korean
Meanwhile, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said today that the government could not say if the abducted man, Kim Sun-il, was still alive. Kim's captors had given South Korea until sunset Monday to halt its troop deployment to Iraq.
"We have various intelligence and information on that matter, but we cannot give you a definite answer," said ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil.
Hundreds of South Koreans attended a candlelight vigil in Seoul on Monday to protest the government's decision to send 3,000 troops to Iraq, the third-largest contingent after the United States and Britain. South Korea now has 600 military medics and engineers in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Kim, 33, who works for a trading company in Baghdad, was believed to have been kidnapped about 10 days ago. A videotape broadcast by the Arab television station Al-Jazeera shows him pleading for his life.
The kidnappers claimed to be from the monotheism and jihad group led by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to have ties to Al-Qaida.
Rally in Fallujah
Chanting anti-U.S. slogans, hundreds rallied in Fallujah on Monday to protest an American airstrike Saturday. Demonstrators accused the Americans of falsely claiming that al-Zarqawi had sought refuge in Fallujah to create an excuse to attack the city.
Kimmitt told reporters the attack killed "key personnel in the Zarqawi network" but he would not confirm that any foreign fighters were among the dead.
Iraqi officials in Fallujah, long one of the centers of anti-American militancy, maintain the attack killed only Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi Health Ministry said at least 17 people died.
Elsewhere, five Iraqi contractors were killed Monday in an ambush on their three-vehicle convoy 30 miles south of Mosul. The U.S. command said two others were wounded.
Undermining government
The recent kidnappings and attacks appear aimed at undermining the interim Iraqi government set to take power June 30, when the U.S.-led occupation formally ends. U.S. and Iraqi officials have vowed to go ahead with the transfer.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said that by week's end, all Iraqi government ministries would be under full Iraqi control.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has promised to crush the terrorist threat and said Sunday his administration was considering martial law in some areas to restore law and order.
But both he and the interim president later sought to temper those remarks, saying martial law was only one of several steps under consideration.
In an interview today with the British Broadcasting Corp., Allawi said his Cabinet was considering "public safety laws" rather than martial law as it devised a security strategy for Iraq.
Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer said Monday the government would be within its rights to impose martial law, but it was not inevitable.
Prisoners freed
Also today, U.S. authorities released three busfuls of prisoners from the notorious Abu Ghraib detention center, bringing the total number set free in the past two months to more than 2,000. The prison is at the center of a scandal over abuse of inmates by U.S. troops.