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Iraqi militants say they kill 3 Turkish hostages
Iraqi militants said Thursday they had killed three Turkish captives, and France pressed on with diplomatic efforts to win the release of two French journalists held hostage by another guerrilla group.
A Muslim delegation from France trying to win the release of the journalists held by Islamic militants said Thursday in Baghdad they had received proof the men were alive and well.
"We are optimistic and confident that they will be released soon," Mohamed Bichari, vice president of the Muslim French Council (CFCM), told reporters at a news conference in Baghdad, after a meeting with the influential Muslim Clerics' Association. He did not say what proof he had seen.
The Arabic Al Jazeera satellite station said the Tawhid and Jihad group had claimed responsibility for killing the Turks.
Tawhid and Jihad is the group led by Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Washington's most wanted man in Iraq with a $25 million price on his head.
The U.S. military said it had launched an air strike late on Wednesday on two buildings in the restive city of Falluja being used as safe houses by Zarqawi's loyalists, and had earlier observed the men killing a captive and burying his body.
"Surrounded by fields, the two targeted buildings served as safe houses and meeting locations for known Zarqawi associates," a U.S. military statement said.
"The Zarqawi associates were observed removing a man from the trunk of a car, executing him, then burying his body."
Doctors in Falluja said at least 17 people were killed in the air strike, including three children and one woman.
U.S. forces pulled out of Falluja in early May after weeks of fighting that killed hundreds of Iraqis and sparked nationwide outrage. Security was handed over to an Iraqi force, but the city is largely in the control of insurgents and is regarded as a haven for foreign militants.
The U.S. military has launched several air strikes on suspected Zarqawi safe houses in Falluja in recent months.
Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim Jaafari, who has been critical of some U.S.-led military operations, said air strikes were not the best tactic for pacifying Falluja and efforts should focus instead on isolating insurgents and cutting their supply routes.
"Blind bombing does not distinguish the terrorist from the non-terrorist," he told Reuters in an interview shortly before the latest air strike Wednesday night.
HOSTAGE CRISIS
The announcement of the killing of the three Turks came after police said they had found three bodies by a road north of Baghdad. They said identification cards showed two of the dead were Turks. The third was also thought to be Turkish.
"They were shot in the chest. An elderly villager found their bodies," police Lieutenant Colonel Farhan Mohammad said.
Scores of hostages from dozens of countries have been seized in the past five months. Most have been freed but more than 20 have been killed by their captors.
Earlier this week, a guerrilla group said it had killed 12 Nepali captives in the biggest mass killing of hostages since the wave of kidnappings began in April. Wednesday, seven truck drivers -- three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian -- were freed after being held for nearly six weeks. The Kuwaiti company that employs them said it had paid a ransom of more than $500,000. The captors of the two French journalists, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, demanded that France rescind a new law banning conspicuous religious symbols including Muslim headscarves from state schools. The French government refused. The new school year began in France Thursday, with few pupils defying the headscarf ban. The government hopes diplomacy will save the hostages. Foreign Minister Michel Barnier is in Amman as part of a Middle East mission that has rallied support from Arab leaders. French media said General Philippe Rondot, a Middle East specialist, and a team of agents were already in Iraq trying to make contact with the hostage-takers. France has been deeply shocked by the seizure of two of its nationals because it objected to pre-war sanctions against Iraq, has no troops there and its relations with Arab countries were boosted by its opposition to the U.S.-led invasion. |
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