Insurgents killed, captured by Marines
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Military officials said Thursday that U.S. Marines killed 25 insurgents and captured 25 more in heavy fighting in the western town of Ramadi the day before, and Iraqi police said they arrested more than 200 people after an overnight raid in Baghdad with U.S. soldiers on a dangerous street frequented by criminal gangs and anti-American forces.
Meanwhile, police in the northern town of Beiji said an unidentified decapitated body was found Wednesday night on the banks of the Tigris River. A Bulgarian official said another decapitated body found near the same spot last week was that of kidnapped truck driver Georgi Lazov, 30. Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov, 32, both Bulgarian truckers, were taken hostage on June 29 near the northern city of Mosul by insurgents who claimed affiliation with al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Witnesses told the Associated Press that the body found Wednesday was clad in an orange jumpsuit, the kind of garment in which kidnappers in Iraq have frequently clothed foreign captives. The witnesses said a severed head was found in a bag next to the body.
More than 60 hostages have been taken in recent months in a campaign by insurgents to drive out foreign troops and civilian workers aiding the U.S.-led reconstruction, a trend that has left many foreigners here on edge and leery of straying far from their work sites.
On Wednesday, an Islamic militant group announced that it had captured six civilians from India, Kenya and Egypt and threatened to behead them one by one starting on Saturday unless their countries withdrew all workers from Iraq. All are truck drivers for a Kuwaiti company.
The announcement came a day after the Philippines complied with demands made by the captors of a Filipino truck driver and its 51 troops to leave Iraq a month ahead of schedule. Foreign governments sharply criticized Phulipine President Gloria Macagapal Arroyo for bowing to the kidnappers’ demands, saying it would encourage further kidnappings.
The Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, a father of eight, was released on Wednesday. Cruz, wearing a white shirt and baseball cap, arrived home in the Philippines on Thursday, where he fell into the arms of his weeping father, who met him at the airport with his wife and children.
A spokesman for the Kenyan government on Thursday urged its citizens to leave Iraq immediately. An official with the Indian Foreign Ministry said that government was working to secure the release of its three hostages.
The clashes Wednesday in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, came after insurgents exploded a bomb near a Marine convoy. In the ensuing series of gunbattles, 14 U.S. soldiers were wounded, none with life-threatening injuries.
The Marines initially fought about eight to 10 insurgents, according to a Marine statement. That battle blossomed into a larger one, involving as many as 100 insurgents. The Marines called for back-up firepower and air support. During the skirmish, the soldiers discovered and detonated two more additional roadside explosive devices, which insurgents have used to deadly effect against U.S., Iraqi and other security forces.