Saturday, February 18, 2006
The British military said two foreigners abducted Thursday are Macedonian.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A spate of roadside bombings in Baghdad and north of the capital killed a U.S. soldier and at least 11 Iraqis on Saturday, officials said. Two Macedonians were kidnapped in southern Iraq, while a search is on for a private German plane missing in the north.
An Iraqi police major also was killed by drive-by gunmen in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, in the latest attack targeting security forces that the United States hopes will eventually take control of Iraq.
The U.S. military said a roadside bomb struck an American vehicle about 8 a.m. in eastern Baghdad, killing a soldier assigned to the Multi-National Division-Baghdad.
The death, the first reported by the command since Tuesday, took the number of U.S. personnel killed in Iraq to at least 2,273 since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The attack happened near the Shaab soccer stadium, and the area was cordoned off by U.S. and Iraqi forces. An American helicopter landed at the scene to take away the victim.
Bomb explosions
Shortly after, a roadside bomb exploded on an eastern Baghdad highway and killed four Iraqi policemen guarding an oil tanker, Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said. One other policeman was wounded, and the tanker was not damaged.
Another concealed bomb detonated at 8:45 a.m. as a police patrol passed in eastern Baghdad's Ghadir area, missing the policemen but killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding four driving in two cars, Lt. Ali Abbas said.
A top Baghdad police official escaped a roadside bomb that targeted his convoy in the downtown Karradah neighborhood. Karradah police chief Brig. Abdul-Karim Maryoush was unharmed, but two policemen were killed and one was wounded, police Maj. Abbas Mohammed said.
A bomb blast in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, that was meant for policemen hit a bus instead, killing one passenger and wounding two others, police said.
One more bystander was killed and five wounded when a bomb planted on a road exploded in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said. The motive for the attack was unclear.
Scores of Iraqis have been killed and wounded by bomb blasts that miss intended targets, such as Iraqi security forces and U.S.-led coalition troops.
U.S. patrol kills three
Iraqi police said a U.S. patrol killed three men trying to plant roadside bombs in Baghdad's troubled southern suburb of Dora.
One man was shot dead while trying to place a bomb on the side of a road, while two accomplices died when soldiers fired at their car, which contained more bombs that exploded, said Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Police said they found the bodies of two bound and blindfolded men riddled with bullet holes at southeastern Baghdad's notorious Rustamiyah sewerage treatment plant, where dozens of bodies have been dumped after being killed in similar fashion.
Kidnapping
The British military confirmed that two foreigners abducted in the southern city of Basra on Thursday morning are Macedonians working for the Ecolog cleaning company. A $1 million ransom has been demanded for their release, a company employee said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Maj. Peter Cripps said the two men were abducted while driving with a Macedonian woman who worked for the same company.
"They were in a vehicle traveling between two locations and during that route they were somehow abducted," Cripps told The Associated Press.
The kidnappers took the two men and left the woman on the side of the road, where she was picked up by a British patrol, Cripps said. Police are investigating the case.
The company employee identified the hostages as Macedonian Muslims of Albanian ethnic origin who worked for the company, which has a cleaning contract at the British-controlled Basra International Airport.