免费日韩片_欧美成人精品一区二区男人小说_国产乱码一区二区三区四区_国产精品国产三级国产aⅴ入口_成人看的污污超级黄网站免费_欧美一级在线免费观看_成人午夜免费无码福利片_国产乱人伦偷精品视频色欲_aaa少妇高潮大片免费看_国产精品1234_亚洲精品国产suv一区88_中文字字幕在线中文无码_精品亚洲区_午夜九九九_国产av国片精品jk制服丝袜_色综合亚洲_亚洲成av人片无码bt种子下载_欧美色就色_精品少妇的一区二区三区四区_男人用嘴添女人下身免费视频

Assailants kidnap Turk, kill six Iraqis
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-14 08:40

Ten assailants sprayed gunfire at a minibus picking up a Turkish businessman from a Baghdad hotel Thursday, killing six Iraqis and kidnapping the Turk, who reportedly ran a construction company working with Americans.

The gunmen swarmed the bus as it pulled up to the Bakhan Hotel at dawn to pick up the man, identified by police as Abdulkadir Tanrikulu. The gunmen opened fire, killing the bus driver and five of Tanrikulu's employees, police said. The attackers then sped off with their captive.

It was the latest bloodshed in a surge of violence about two weeks before Iraqis will choose a national legislature in the first election since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's rule.

Iraqis have ther morning tea next to electoral posters featuring the Shiite cleric Ali al Sistani, in Baghdad, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005. The election planned for Jan. 30 is the first democratic vote in Iraq since the country was formed in 1932. [AP]

On Wednesday, gunmen killed a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric, along with the aide's son and four bodyguards in a town south of Baghdad, an official in the cleric's office said Thursday.

His slaying was apparently meant as a warning to al-Sistani, who strongly backs the Jan. 30 vote. Rebels have also targeted electoral workers and candidates.

Sheik Mahmoud Finjan, al-Sistani's representative in the town of Salman Pak, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad, was shot to death Wednesday night as he was returning home from evening prayers at a mosque, the official said. His son and four bodyguards were also killed, according to the official at al-Sistani's office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Shiites make up 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people and are expected to dominate the 275-member National Assembly. Many Sunnis, who make up 20 percent of the population, fear a loss of the influence and privilege they enjoyed for decades. And Sunni clerics have called for a boycott to protest the November assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

U.S. and Iraqi officials fear that a low Sunni turnout will cast doubts on the new government's legitimacy.

Al-Sistani has urged Iraqis to vote, calling it a religious duty for every man and woman. The Iranian-born cleric is not running himself but is backing the 228 candidates from the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of 16 groups that includes Iraq's largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

If many Sunnis do stay home on election day, the United Iraqi Alliance stands to dominate the assembly.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Thursday that Iraqis' participation in the vote could help end the violence.

"One of the ways to end the insurgency is to continue going forward with the political process and that Iraqis participate in the political process, including elections," Allawi told Al-Arabiya television.

Also Thursday, U.S. troops clashed with insurgents in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah neighborhood, and some Iraqis were killed, witnesses said. Several cars were scorched by fire and bullet casings littered the ground. The military had no comment.

Thursday's attack at the Baghdad hotel left the pavement stained with blood. Gunmen dragged the bodies out of the minibus and drove off with it, along with the Turkish businessman.

There has been no claim of responsibility or demands.

A Turkish news channel said the man's construction company was working in Iraq with Americans. A hotel employee who gave only his first name, Alaa, said he had been in Iraq for about a year.

Nearly 180 foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq since last April; more than 30 of them have been killed.

Also Thursday, gunmen kidnapped an Iraqi of Egyptian origin in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said. Sayyed Abdul-Khaleq was taken from the gas station he owns by gunmen dressed as Iraqi National Guard, police Maj. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef said.

In another sign that insurgents were stepping up their activity in the capital, explosions rocked the area of the heavily guarded Green Zone, breaking a lull of a couple of weeks in insurgent shelling of the international district.

Two explosions were heard Thursday morning, and up to three others shook the area after sundown. It was unclear where the explosions occurred and whether there were casualties or damage.

The Green Zone, located on the western side of the Tigris River, includes major U.S. and Iraqi government offices.

Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer weighed in on the U.S. announcement Wednesday that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has concluded without finding any. US President Bush had cited the weapons as justification for going to war.

Al-Yawer, in Paris for talks with French President Jacques Chirac, said the war still served a purpose.

"What has happened has happened," al-Yawer told reporters, speaking in English. "But the war rid Iraq of a vicious regime which established a dynasty of villains."

Close

Today's Top News     Top World News
Bilateral meeting sign of progress on IPR protection         Expressway planned to link Beijing, Taipei         Investors ask for no cut in tax favours         Straw to discuss arms ban in Beijing         Malaria threat emerges in tsunami zone         Gambling with public funds faces crackdown	Signs of recovery on shores battered by tsunami       Assailants kidnap Turk, kill six Iraqis       Malaria threat emerges in tsunami zone       Annan: Tsunami damage gives clues to climate peril       Iraq poll fears deepen as 2 Sistani aides killed       Troop escorts ordered for aid workers