Iraqi police stormed a farm north of Baghdad early Thursday and freed at
least 17 people who were snatched a day earlier in a mass kidnapping of about 85
workers and family members at the end of a factory shift.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, reported that four Marines and a soldier were
killed in operations south and west of Baghdad, and an explosion of sectarian
and revenge killings in Mosul -- Iraq's third-largest city -- over the past
three days claimed 19 lives.
The chief lawyer representing Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants said
they went on a hunger strike to protest the shooting death Wednesday of a
defense attorney. It was the third such killing in the 8-month-old trial.
The freed kidnap victims brought to nearly 50 the number of captives who have
been either released by their captors or extricated by police. About 30 of the
hostages, mainly women and children, were released shortly after they were taken
captive Wednesday. It is routine in Iraq for women to take their children to
work.
One kidnap victim, a Shiite Muslim, said he was set free Wednesday night
after showing the kidnappers a forged ID card listing him as a Sunni. He said
two hostages had been killed trying to escape. The man refused to give his name
fearing retribution.
"As we were leaving the factory we were stopped by gunmen. They got on our
buses and told us to put our heads down. Then they took us to a poultry farm,"
the man said.
"One of the gunmen told us to stand in one line and then asked the Sunnis to
get out of the line. That's what I did. They asked me to prove that I am a
Sunni, so I showed the forged ID and three others did the same. They released
us," the man said.
A National Security Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, told The Associated Press
that several insurgents holding the kidnap victims were captured during the
Thursday morning raid on the farm in the Mishada area, about 20 miles north of
the capital.
Police operations were continuing in the area, the official said, in a bid to
locate the rest of the victims who were taken at the end of the day shift at
al-Nasr General Complex, a former military plant that now makes metal doors,
windows and pipes.
