- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Iraq's
police and National Guard killed 13 suspected militants in heavy clashes
near Baghdad on Sunday in one of the fiercest battles the fledgling security
forces have faced since the handover of sovereignty.
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- The police and National Guard were attacked by rebel
mortar fire and rocket-propelled grenades as they provided security to
U.S. forces conducting raids near the rebellious town of Buhriz, 55 km
(35 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
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- During the fighting, which lasted around an hour, U.S.
warplanes patrolled the skies and U.S. artillery guns opened fire to suppress
the insurgents' mortar positions, Major Neal O'Brien of the U.S. 1st Infantry
Division said.
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- It was one of the first major battles between Iraq's
security forces and insurgents since the handover of sovereignty on June
28 to an Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, and by far
the largest death toll. No Iraqi security forces or U.S. troops were killed.
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- Reuters television pictures showed buildings blackened
by fire and pockmarked with bullet and artillery holes. Inside one house,
a family wept over the open coffin of a dead man.
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- Outside, a number of armed men, their faces wrapped in
checked scarves and wearing white robes, fired weapons into the air and
shouted "Down with Allawi, down with America."
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- HOSTAGE CRISIS
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- The fighting came as Iraq's months-long hostage crisis
took another turn for the worse -- two Pakistanis working for a Kuwait-based
company were feared kidnapped after going missing.
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- Pakistan's Foreign Office said the two, an engineer and
a driver believed to be working for the al-Tamimi Group, disappeared on
Friday as they drove to Baghdad.
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- Kausar Parveen, wife of Azad Khan, called for the early
release of her 49-year-old husband as their eldest daughter cried for her
father at their village in Bangoi, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of the Pakistani
capital Islamabad.
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- "I miss my father very much. I urge the Pakistani
government and Iraqi people to help find my father," said Nazia, 21,
with tears rolling down her face.
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- Over the past 15 months, nationals from nearly two dozen
countries have been kidnapped in Iraq, sometimes by criminal gangs, but
increasingly by militants seeking to put pressure on governments and foreign
companies to pull out of the country.
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- In a step up in sophistication for militants, a senior
Egyptian diplomat was seized as he left a Baghdad mosque on Friday. Most
of those kidnapped so far have been drivers.
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- Abductions have sharply increased since April, when several
dozen people were seized in one month. Around 60 people have been taken
hostage since then, officials say.
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- Although most have since been freed, at least six have
been killed -- four of them by beheading -- and on at least two occasions
the hostage-takers' demands have been met, a move that may be fueling the
surge in abductions.
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- DON'T BUCKLE, SAYS IRAQ
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- A group calling itself al Qaeda's arm in Europe said
Italy and Australia, both strong allies of the United States, must pull
out of Iraq or face attacks.
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- "Australian people, if your government refuses to
withdraw ... we will shake the ground beneath your feet ... and columns
of rigged cars will not stop," declared a group calling itself Islamic
Tawhid Group, the al Qaeda organization, Europe.
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- "Italian people, we advise you accept our offer
and if you refuse you will hear columns of rigged cars shaking your cities,"
the group said in a statement posted on a Web site.
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- Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he
was not familiar with the group but was taking the threat seriously.
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- "It reminds us that we have to be absolutely determined
in the face of the threats of terrorists to make sure that we don't give
in to those threats," he told Australian television.
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- During a stopover in Syria, part of a week-long tour
of Arab and neighboring states, Allawi urged Egypt and all other nations
not to give in to the kidnappers.
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- "The only way to deal with terrorists is to bring
them to justice and to close ranks and we hope that Egypt and the Egyptian
government would act accordingly," he told reporters.
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- "We are going to win. I assure you of that and we
are going to prevail and the terrorists will be brought to justice."
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- The hostage-taking campaign broadly appears aimed at
pushing nations to withdraw from Iraq, although some groups have also demanded
prisoners be freed or compensation be paid to victims of U.S. military
offensives. Some are criminals wanting money.
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- Last week, the Philippines decided to withdraw its troops
from Iraq early to spare the life of a Filipino hostage. It joined Spain,
the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras in pulling out of what was
a 34-nation U.S.-led coalition.
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- As well as the two Pakistanis and the Egyptian diplomat,
three Indians, three Kenyans and another Egyptian -- all drivers -- were
seized in the past week and are still being held.
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- Iraqis have also suffered in the spate of abductions
-- the chief of Iraq's al-Mansour Construction Company, a state-owned firm,
was kidnapped on Saturday as he drove to work in Baghdad.
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- The head of Allawi's party in the rebellious city of
Falluja, Adel al-Khufeij al-Jumaili, has also been kidnapped, his relatives
said. Falluja is seen as a stronghold for insurgents and many hostages
have been held there.
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- - Additional reporting by Dean Yates in Baghdad, Zeeshan
Haider in Islamabad, Wendy Pugh in Melbourne and Faris Mehdawi in Baquba
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