Militants attacks wounds 4 in north Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-12 15:48

Militants unleashed attacks that left four people wounded in northeastern Iraq, officials said Tuesday, as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Iraq.

Gunmen opened fire late Monday on a police patrol in the city of Kirkuk, wounded two of the officers, police Brig. Sarhat Kadier said.

Attackers also placed a bomb in the undercarriage of a doctor's car, but the device exploded as the physician entered a Kirkuk store to buy bread, sparing him but wounding two nearby civilians, Kadir said. The motive for the attack was unknown.

British soldiers give the thumbs-up as they guard the gates of the newly opened soccer stadium in the southern city of Basra, 500 kms from Baghdad. The stadium was repaired and made ready for use in a joint British-Iraqi scheme. [AFP]

Kirkuk is 180 miles north of Baghdad — where Rumsfeld arrived before dawn on Tuesday for his second visit in three months. He was to meet with Iraq's interim president and prime minister.

Late Monday, the U.S. embassy in Iraq announced the kidnapping of an American citizen.

A spokesman said the American contractor, who was working on a reconstruction project, had been abducted around noon Monday. The spokesman didn't release the contractor's identity or other details, but said the abductee's family had been informed.

In Samarra, a troubled city 60 miles north of Baghdad, a pickup truck blew up Monday near a U.S. patrol, killing three civilians and wounding more than 20 others, including four U.S. soldiers, officials said.

Loudspeakers urged residents to donate blood as the wounded poured into the hospital. Most of the injured were women and children, hospital official Abdul Nasir Hamid said. The incident was in the Sunni Triangle, an insurgent stronghold.

Early Monday, suicide bombers tried to crash two cars and a fire truck into Camp Gannon in the western desert, but "the drivers of the vehicles were stopped short of the camp by forces manning the checkpoints," a U.S. military statement said.

The vehicles exploded, wounding three Marines and three civilians, U.S. officials said. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.

Insurgents also fired at the camp, which is in the town of Qaim near the Syrian border, and a U.S. attack helicopter destroyed a car carrying a gunman, officials said. It was unclear how many insurgents and suicide bombers were killed in the assault.

In a small victory against a spate of kidnappings targeting Iraqis and foreigners, a Defense Ministry official said Monday that Iraqi security forces arrested a man who claimed responsibility for kidnapping two French journalists.

The hostages, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were released in December after four months in captivity.

Iraqi army soldiers captured Amer Hussein Sheikhan in the Mahmoudiya area on April 4, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The office of Romanian President Traian Basescu said three Romanian journalists kidnapped along with their guide nearly two weeks ago in Iraq were believed to be alive, and authorities were optimistic they would return home.

Close

Today's Top News     Top World News
Sino-Indian accord to solve border dispute, boost trade         Possible Lien Chan visit hits troubled waters         Report: Saddam could escape execution         Tokyo stocks lower amid tension with China         China unlikely to agree MG Rover rescue         Japan seeks to improve China ties	Report: Saddam could escape execution       Tony Blair favored in British elections       U.S. to promise $1.7b in aid for Sudan       Lebanon leaders delay cabinet formation       U.S. contractor kidnapped in Iraq       Hizbollah flies drone over northern Israel