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Insurgents slaughter 11 Iraqi soldiers
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-29 08:47
Insurgents slaughtered 11 Iraqi soldiers, beheading one, then shooting the
others execution-style, and declared on an Islamic militant Web site Thursday
that Iraqi fighters will avenge "the blood" of women and children killed in U.S.
strikes on the guerrilla stronghold of Fallujah.
The wave of foreigner kidnappings claimed another victim — a Polish woman in
her 60s who is married to an Iraqi. Her captors demanded that Poland withdraw
its 2,400 soldiers and that the U.S.-led coalition free all Iraqi women held at
Abu Ghraib prison.
The killing of the 11 Iraqi National Guardsmen was claimed by the Ansar
al-Sunnah Army, which posted a videotape of their brutal deaths on its Web site
Thursday along with a warning for all Iraqi police and soldiers to desert or
face death. The militants said earlier the soldiers were abducted this week on
the road between Baghdad and Hillah, 60 miles to the south.
After forcing each of the soldiers to state his name and unit, the militants
forced one of them to the ground and sawed off his head. The others were forced
to kneel with their hands bound as a gunman fired shots into the back of their
heads.
A voice on the videotape warned all Iraqi soldiers and police to "repent to
God, abandon your weapons, go home and beware of supporting the apostate
Crusaders or their followers, the Iraqi government, or else you will only find
death."
"We will not forget the blood of our elderly, our women and our children that
is shed daily in Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi and elsewhere," a statement on the
Web site said.
The al-Sunnah movement has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks and
hostage takings, including the slaying of 12 Nepalese hostages in August.
Elsewhere, two more American soldiers were killed — one in a car bombing in
Baghdad and the other in an ambush near Balad, 40 miles north of the capital. At
least 1,109 U.S. service members have died since President Bush launched
the Iraq war in March 2003.
U.S. Marines also captured 16 suspected insurgents in a sweep south of
Baghdad, bombed a suspected insurgent safe house in Fallujah and clashed with
guerrillas in Ramadi.
In Tokyo, authorities said they had failed to enlist the help of a prominent
Iraqi cleric in trying to free a 24-year-old Japanese hostage.
An al-Qaida affiliate led by Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
threatened Tuesday to behead Shosei Koda in 48 hours unless Japan withdraws its
troops — a demand rejected by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Also Thursday, a videotape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television showed two
truck drivers — from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — who were taken hostage.
Al-Jazeera said the men, shown on the tape wearing flak jackets, worked for a
Kuwaiti company.
The video of the Polish hostage, also aired on Al-Jazeera, showed a
middle-aged woman with gray hair wearing a polka-dotted blouse sitting in front
of two masked gunmen, one of whom was pointing a pistol at her head.
The woman was identified as Teresa Borcz-Kalifa by one of her former
superiors at the Polish Embassy in Baghdad, where she worked in the 1990s.
Leszek Adamiec told Poland's private Radio Zet that Borcz-Kalifa worked in the
consular section until 1994.
The woman, a longtime resident with Iraqi citizenship, was believed to have
been abducted Wednesday night from her home in Baghdad, Polish authorities said.
She was the ninth foreign woman abducted in Iraq since a wave of kidnappings
began last spring. By comparison, Iraqi officials say that at least 152 Iraqis
have been kidnapped this month — the highest monthly total since the occupation
began last year.
Borcz-Kalifa's abduction was claimed by the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Fundamentalist
Brigades.
Her voice was not audible on the tape, but Al-Jazeera said she urged Polish
troops to leave the country and for U.S. and Iraqi authorities to release all
female detainees from Abu Ghraib. The kidnappers did not mention a specific
death threat or give a deadline.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski said Poland would not surrender "to the
dictate of terrorists" by meeting the demands. Poland commands some 6,000 troops
from 15 nations in three provinces south of Baghdad.
All but two foreign women hostages have been released, and in a statement
issued Thursday in London, CARE International appealed for the release of
Margaret Hassan, a British-Irish-Iraqi citizen who has headed the humanitarian
organization's operations in Iraq since 1991.
"CARE has closed down all operations in Iraq," the statement said in English
and Arabic. "Please release Mrs. Hassan to her family and friends in Iraq."
No group has claimed responsibility for kidnapping Hassan, but on a video
aired Wednesday she was seen pleading for the withdrawal of British troops and
the release of Iraq women prisoners.
Several groups of hostage-takers have demanded the release of women prisoners
in Iraq, including al-Zarqawi's organization. Two Americans and a Briton were
beheaded last month after coalition forces refused the demand.
Meanwhile, the first wave of 75 British soldiers set up camp Thursday at
their new base about 30 miles south of Baghdad, part of some 800 British troops
moving closer to the capital to bolster U.S. forces. Black Watch soldiers
redeployed from the southern city of Basra were told they will be pulled out of
Iraq in early December, the British news agency Press Association reported.
U.S. and Iraqi forces are gearing up for a possible assault on Fallujah and
other militant strongholds west of Baghdad if community leaders do not hand over
foreign fighters and extremists, including al-Zarqawi and his
followers.
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