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Four US troops die in separate Iraq attacks
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-11 10:49
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents killed four American soldiers in separate attacks
Saturday as violence mounted five days ahead of national elections. U.S.
officials announced the release of 238 detainees but said the move was unrelated
to demands by kidnappers of four Christian peace activists to free all
prisoners.
Two of the soldiers were killed by small arms fire southwest
of the capital, the U.S. command said. The others died in a roadside bombing in
Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah and by small arms fire north of the
city, according to the command.
The U.S. military also said an American soldier was killed and 11 others
wounded Friday in a suicide car bombing in the Abu Ghraib district of western
Baghdad. That brought to at least 2,140 the number of U.S. military members who
have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press
count.
Concern mounted over the fate of the four activists as a deadline set by
kidnappers threatening to kill them passed on Saturday. The Interior Ministry
said it had no information about the hostages, and various emissaries sent from
Canada and Britain showed no sign they had established contact with the
kidnappers.
The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigade seized the activists
two weeks ago. It first set a Thursday deadline but then extended it until
Saturday, without giving a precise hour.
The four are Norman Kember, 74, of London; Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va.;
and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32.
Sunni Arab clerics used their main weekly religious service Friday to plead
for the hostages' lives because of their humanitarian work and condemnation of
the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
U.S. and British officials have expressed concern for the lives of the
captives but made clear they would not bow to the kidnappers' demands.
On Saturday, U.S. officials said they had released 238 security detainees
held by the multinational forces. However, such releases are common and arranged
weeks in advance. U.S. Embassy spokesman Liz Colton said the release was not in
response to the kidnappers' demands.
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