Police Targeted By Iraq Bombers

Two Men Blow Themselves Up At Baghdad Academy, Dozens Dead

(CBS/AP) 
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said a soldier assigned to Task Force Baghdad was killed when a patrol hit a roadside bomb Sunday. At least 2,129 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The video broadcast on Al-Jazeera showed a blond, Western-looking man sitting with his hands tied behind his back. The video also bore the logo of the Islamic Army in Iraq, an insurgent group, and showed a U.S. passport and an Arabic identification card with the name Ronald Schulz. The spelling of the name was uncertain because it was written in Arabic.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Liz Colton said American authorities were aware of the Al-Jazeera report and were investigating.

The authenticity of the video could not be confirmed.

If true, the man would be the second American taken hostage in the last two weeks. A U.S. citizen was among four peace activists abducted Nov. 26 by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness. Two Canadians and a Briton also were seized.

The British Broadcasting Corp. aired a video Tuesday in which the captive peace activists urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the United States to pull out of Iraq.

The excerpt was a previously unseen section of a video broadcast last week by Al-Jazeera in which the group threatened to kill the four men unless all prisoners in U.S. and Iraqi detention centers are freed by Thursday, according to the BBC, which said it obtained the new footage from the Internet.

"I ask Mr. Blair to take British troops out of Iraq and leave the Iraqi people to come to their own decisions on their government," a British-accented male voice, presumably that of Briton Norman Kember, said.

A male voice with a North American accent then said: "As a representative of Christian Peacemaker Teams, we feel that continued American and British occupation is not in the best interest of the Iraqi people."

On Tuesday, Bush said the United States will work for the return of captive Americans in Iraq but would not submit to terrorist tactics.

"We, of course, don't pay ransom for any hostages," Bush said. "What we will do, of course, is use our intelligence-gathering to see if we can't help locate them."

A French engineer was taken hostage in Baghdad on Monday and a German aid worker was abducted near Mosul on Nov. 26.

There is no evidence the kidnappings were coordinated, and those responsible for abducting the German aid worker and four Christian peace activists claim to represent different groups. But the incidents seemed timed to coincide with Saddam's trial or the Dec. 15 elections.

Christian Peacemaker Teams appealed to the kidnappers to release the four activists, with the group saying, "we also condemn our own governments for their actions in Iraq."

Also Tuesday, the Marines updated their report on the deaths of 10 Marines on Dec. 1 near Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

The statement said the Marines from Company F, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, were not on a foot patrol, as previously reported, but were in an abandoned flour mill used as a temporary patrol base when they were killed by an explosion.

The Marines had gathered in the mill for a promotion ceremony, according to the statement, which added the military suspects one of the Marines triggered a booby trap, causing the explosion.

In another development, the U.S. military said Tuesday that Saddam's nephew was convicted of illegally crossing the border from Syria and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Ayman Sabawi, son of Saddam's half brother Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, was found guilty and sentenced Monday by an Iraqi court.