Apparent assassinations kill 5 Iraqi officials

edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/26/iraq.main/
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Apparent assassinations kill 5 Iraqi officials

Sunday, December 26, 2004 Posted: 1344 GMT (2144 HKT)


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen killed five Iraqi officials in what appeared to be three separate assassination attacks, sources said Sunday.

Iraqi police officials and Ministry of Interior sources said one of those killed was Col. Yassin Ibrahim Jawad, a high ranking police officer.

Masked men attacked Jawad's vehicle in a drive-by shooting on Sunday while he was traveling to work in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Baya.

The gunmen also wounded two of Jawad's bodyguards, one of them critically.

On Saturday, in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Khadmiye, unknown gunmen killed two local council members in a drive-by shooting, Baghdad police officials said.

In Taji, about 13 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad, a third shooting killed a local council member and a relative.

Alleged al-Zarqawi men held
Two men the United States says are key figures in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist network are in U.S. custody following a sweep of Ramadi, Iraq, U.S. military sources revealed in a statement Saturday.

Soldiers of the Marine Expeditionary Force captured Saleh Arugayan Kahlil (Mahalawi), also known as Abu Ubaydah, on December 8 and caught Bassim Mohammad Hazeem, also known as Abu Khattab, on December 12, the statement said.

The two men were cell leaders of the "Harun terrorist network," an al-Zarqawi-affiliated group operating in Ramadi and western al Anbar province, the statement said.

"This group is responsible for intimidating, attacking and murdering innocent Iraqi civilians, Iraqi police and security forces and business and political leaders throughout the Anbar province," it said.

The U.S. military blames the Harun terrorist network for kidnapping and killing 11 Iraqi national guardsmen during the past several months and carrying out several lethal bombing attacks.

The terrorist cell also is believed to have smuggled foreign terrorists into Iraq, in an effort "to destabilize the region and prevent economic growth in Iraq," according to the statement.

The soldiers who captured the men were attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force.

Other developments

A car bomb, apparently targeted at a U.S. military convoy, exploded Saturday on a road north of Najaf, killing at least three civilians and wounded two others, according to Najaf Police Chief Ghalib Al-Jazairi. Witnesses told police the vehicle was a white 1982 Toyota Land Cruiser with two men inside, Al-Jazairi said.

Kahraman Sadikoglu, kidnapped owner of a company contracted to remove sunken ships from an Iraqi port, appeared on a videotape aired Saturday by a Turkish television channel. Listeners can hear a voice ordering Sadikoglu to order his company out of the country. Abductors nabbed Sadikoglu a week ago, but it remains unknown who holds him captive.