IRAQ U.S. says no to release

A missile has killed a leader of a terrorist group.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Two high-profile women prisoners in American custody will not be released immediately, the U.S. Embassy said, despite an earlier announcement by Iraqi authorities promising to free one woman.
The two female scientists "are in our legal and physical custody," a U.S. Embassy spokesman said today.
"Legal status of these two and many others is under constant review," he said.
Militants say they have beheaded two American hostages and have threatened to kill a British captive unless Muslim women in U.S. custody in Iraq are freed.
Who they are
The U.S. military says the only two Iraqi women in its custody are two security prisoners being held at an undisclosed location -- Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as "Dr. Germ" for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as "Mrs. Anthrax."
Earlier Friday, a Justice Ministry spokesman announced that Iraqi authorities together with U.S.-led forces had decided to release Taha on bail.
Ministry spokesman Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim denied the decision was linked to the militants' demands.
"The Iraqi authorities have agreed with coalition forces to conditionally release Rihab Rashid Taha on bail," Ibrahim said. "The decision ... has nothing to do with the threat made by the kidnappers."
Ibrahim said authorities were also considering whether to release Ammash, saying her case was "under study."
Taha is the wife of Amer Mohammed Rashid, who surrendered to coalition forces in April. He was No. 47 on the most-wanted list and had been Saddam's missile expert.
Snatched last week
Tawhid and Jihad, an Al-Qaida-linked group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, snatched the two Americans and the Briton last week. It released a video showing the beheading of one of the Americans on Monday and the following day announced it had killed the second.
The first American's body was found and identified. Another decapitated body was found in Baghdad today and authorities are trying to confirm whether it is the body of kidnapped American Jack Hensley.
The body and its severed head were found in a black plastic bag in Baghdad's Amiriya neighborhood, said Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an official with the Interior Ministry. The U.S. Embassy confirmed that a headless body was handed over to American authorities, but said officials were still trying to determine the identity of the corpse.
On Monday, the group released gruesome footage of the beheading of fellow American hostage Eugene Armstrong. His body was discovered Monday just blocks from where he lived, western officials and witnesses said, raising the possibility that the hostages never left Baghdad.
"The nation's zealous sons slaughtered the second American hostage after the end of the deadline," the statement said. It was posted on an Islamic Web site and could not immediately be verified.
Pleas for help
Relatives of the British hostage, Kenneth Bigley, pleaded with British authorities to intervene to win the release of women prisoners in a bid to meet the militants' demands and save Bigley's life.
"The release of the two high value detainees is a matter for the U.S. and Iraqi authorities," a spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Baghdad said: "It is not a process in which we are involved."
"Our primary aim is to save the life of Kenneth Bigley," she said, adding that there are no female detainees held by British troops in Iraq.
Terror leader killed
Meanwhile, the spiritual leader of Tawhid and Jihad has been killed in a U.S. airstrike, and his Jordanian family is preparing a wake, a newspaper and Islamic clerics said today.
Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, 35, was killed when a missile hit the car he was traveling in on Friday in the west Baghdad suburb of Abu-Ghraib, said the clerics, who have close ties to the family. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
Al-Shami was a close aide to al-Zarqawi.
Al-Shami, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent who was also known as Omar Yousef Jumah, was believed to be the voice on several audio tapes that Tawhid and Jihad released via the Internet. In one such tape in August, a speaker identified as al-Shami said the militants planned to kill Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, soldiers and police officers.
"We will not allow you to destroy our hopes in this blessed holy war, and we will not let you steal our bright tomorrow, which is now appearing on the horizon," the speaker said on the tape.
The independent Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad quoted al-Shami's family today as confirming the death. It said the family was preparing a wake in the east Amman suburb where al-Shami lived before he went to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion last year.
U.S. strikes
Elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. aircraft and tanks attacked Shiite militia positions in fierce fighting early today in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, killing 10 people and injuring 92 others, hospital officials said.
The fighting came as U.S. and Iraqi forces searched for weapons caches and targeted "pockets of insurgents and terrorists" in the Shiite stronghold, an east Baghdad slum, the military said in a statement.
"The intent is to provide security for the people of Thawra so we can get back to the business of reconstruction," said 1st Cavalry Division commanding general Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli in a writen statement. Thawra is an old name for Sadr City.