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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen in Baghdad on Monday killed the brother of Tariq al-Hashimi, Iraq's vice president, five months after al-Hashimi's sister and another brother were gunned down in separate incidents.According to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official, Gen. Amer al-Hashimi and an adviser with the Defense Ministry were killed around 7 a.m. inside his house in Seleikh, a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad. The official said the gunmen also kidnapped four guards at the house. In April, gunmen killed the vice president's sister, Maysoon al-Hashimim, and her driver in an ambush in the Alam neighborhood. Two weeks earlier, his brother Mahmood was gunned down while driving with a friend on a Baghdad highway. Meanwhile, dozens of gunmen surrounded an Iraqi army checkpoint Monday morning in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, kidnapping 11 Iraqi soldiers, a Baghdad emergency police official said. At least 40 gunmen traveling in 10 vehicles carried out the mass kidnapping around 7:30 a.m. at Hamza Square in Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mehdi militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The gunmen are believed to be Mehdi militia fighters. Also, police recovered 35 bullet-riddled bodies across the Iraqi capital Sunday, an Iraqi emergency police official said. According to the official, some of the bodies showed signs of torture. The bodies could not be immediately identified. Hundreds of similar killings in recent months have been blamed on Sunni vs. Shiite strife. Also Sunday, hundreds of Iraqi policemen fell sick from poisoning at a base in southern Iraq after an evening meal, The Associated Press reported. Officials said they were investigating whether the poisoning was intentional. Bloody raid in Diwaniya Iraqi and U.S. troops on Sunday searched neighborhoods in Diwaniya after a bloody raid in the city netted a "high-value target" and left 30 insurgents dead, according to U.S. and Iraqi military spokesmen. Iraqi Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf said the joint forces are sealing off major roads in the neighborhoods of Askari and Chalabi in Diwaniya, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. Police have reported hearing gunfire and occasional explosions in the two neighborhoods where Sunday's searches were taking place. No coalition soldiers were wounded or killed in the fighting, the military said, which took place about 95 miles (150 kilometers) south of Baghdad. Diwaniya, is another stronghold of the Mehdi militia loyal to al-Sadr. The operation netted a "high-value target," who was believed involved in the murder of an Iraqi soldier in August, the military said. Three other people also were captured in the operation, according to the military. The fighting began Saturday night as insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at Iraqi and U.S. troops, the military said. Three RPG rounds hit a U.S. Abrams tank, severely damaging it. U.S. and Iraqi troops fought back, killing 30 insurgents, the military said. The U.S. soldiers were from Company D, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Iraq foreign minister disputes senator Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Sunday that the situation in Iraq "is not as desperate as people think," despite a recent warning from a top Republican U.S. senator. Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Thursday that Washington should reconsider its strategy in Iraq if things don't turn around in the next few months. Warner said "the situation is simply drifting sideways" and the Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is "simply not living up or not able to meet just the fundamental responsibilities of a government operating through agencies." Zebari disagreed that the Iraqi government was stalled or stopped during an appearance on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." "We all admit [the government] has a serious challenge and it needs to rise up to that challenge to improve security, to deliver on what it has pledged the people," Zebari said. "This has been slow, but we have been moving steadily forward, actually." U.S. soldiers killed Three U.S. soldiers and six Marines were killed in separate attacks in Iraq during the weekend, bringing the total number of U.S. military deaths to 30 for the month of October. The most recent deaths include three Marines who died Sunday in combat in Anbar province, the U.S. military said Monday. The three were assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7. On Saturday, a soldier assigned to the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, died in a roadside bomb attack, and a soldier assigned to Multi-National Division-Baghdad, was killed by small-arms fire, according to the U.S. military. Three Marines died on Friday during operations in Anbar province, the U.S. military announced Sunday. The Marines were assigned to the Regimental Combat Team 5. Also, a U.S. soldier died Friday from "enemy action" during an operation near the Iraqi city of Baiji, the military announced on Saturday. The number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq war stands at 2,737 troops and seven Defense Department civilian employees, according to military reports. | |
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