25 Kidnapping Victims Released In Iraq
Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped shopkeepers and bystanders Thursday from a major commercial area in central Baghdad in what was apparently an attack against Sunnis, the second such mass abduction in a month. At least 25 of the hostages were released after several hours and left in a northern neighborhood of Baghdad, police said.
The attackers drove up to the busy Sanak area in about 10 sport utility vehicles and began rounding up people from the stores and the streets Thursday morning, according to police and witnesses.
There was confusion over the number of people seized, with some policemen and witnesses offering figures between 21 and 70. One policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, later said at 25 to 29 of the hostages had been freed but declined to say how many remained missing.
But the Shiite television station Al-Forat also said 29 captives were freed. The Sunni clerical group, the Association of Muslims Scholars, said more than 30 people had been separated according to their IDs and taken away by kidnappers wearing government uniforms and driving governmental vehicles.
The association placed responsibility on U.S. forces and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.
Nobody claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on Shiite militias, which are believed to have infiltrated police forces and have killed hundreds in sectarian violence, personal vendettas and kidnappings for ransom.
In other developments:
On the three-year anniversary of Saddam Hussein's capture, Iraqis feel less safe now than they did while under his regime, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. A survey by an Iraqi research center finds 95 percent of the respondents believe security is worse now.
Calling it a fascinating discussion, President Bush spent the better part of two hours Wednesday with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the civilian leadership of the Pentagon, including soon-to be Defense Secretary Robert Gates, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. But in the search for a new strategy on Iraq, he renewed his commitment to the current one. "If we lose our nerve, if we're not steadfast in our determination to help the Iraqi government succeed, we will be handing Iraq over to an enemy that would do us harm."
Sen. John McCain said Thursday that America should to deploy 15,000 to 30,000 more troops to Iraq to control its sectarian violence, and give moderate Iraqi politicians the stability they need to take the country in the right direction. McCain made the remarks to reporters in Baghdad, where he and five other members of Congress were meeting with U.S. and Iraqi officials. The other members of the delegation are Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Thune of South Dakota, and Republican Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois.
Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said he wants to grow his half-million-member Army beyond the 30,000 troops already added in recent years. Though he didn't give an exact number, he said it would take significant time and commitment by the nation, noting some 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers could be added per year.
The Army dropped the death penalty Wednesday as a possible sentence for a soldier charged with rape and murder in the deaths of 14-year-old girl and three others in Iraq. Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 22, now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted, said Maj. Don Lobeda, an attorney with the 101st Airborne Division.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber slammed into an Iraqi army check point, killing a soldier and a civilian and wounding nine other people, police said.
Police in the capital also found 45 bullet-riddled bodies of men who had been bound and blindfolded, while 17 bodies showing signs of torture — including five that were dumped in a flour mill in the town of Wahda — also turned up in the mostly Shiite Wasit province southeast of Baghdad.
Three other bodies, including one that was beheaded, were found elsewhere in a volatile area southwest of the capital.
The violence underscores the difficulties the Iraqi government faces after it unveiled a plan to assume responsibility for security in Baghdad, allowing U.S. forces to move to the periphery of the capital, by early next year.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The attackers drove up to the busy Sanak area in about 10 sport utility vehicles and began rounding up people from the stores and the streets Thursday morning, according to police and witnesses.
There was confusion over the number of people seized, with some policemen and witnesses offering figures between 21 and 70. One policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, later said at 25 to 29 of the hostages had been freed but declined to say how many remained missing.
But the Shiite television station Al-Forat also said 29 captives were freed. The Sunni clerical group, the Association of Muslims Scholars, said more than 30 people had been separated according to their IDs and taken away by kidnappers wearing government uniforms and driving governmental vehicles.
The association placed responsibility on U.S. forces and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.
Nobody claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on Shiite militias, which are believed to have infiltrated police forces and have killed hundreds in sectarian violence, personal vendettas and kidnappings for ransom.
In other developments:
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber slammed into an Iraqi army check point, killing a soldier and a civilian and wounding nine other people, police said.
Police in the capital also found 45 bullet-riddled bodies of men who had been bound and blindfolded, while 17 bodies showing signs of torture — including five that were dumped in a flour mill in the town of Wahda — also turned up in the mostly Shiite Wasit province southeast of Baghdad.
Three other bodies, including one that was beheaded, were found elsewhere in a volatile area southwest of the capital.
The violence underscores the difficulties the Iraqi government faces after it unveiled a plan to assume responsibility for security in Baghdad, allowing U.S. forces to move to the periphery of the capital, by early next year.
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Conditions like these were foreseen years before we chose to invade Iraq. The probable descent into civil war was one of the main reasons 41 had the "real" coalition forces stop before going into Baghdad. Planning for post-Saddam Iraq began almost 1 1/2 years before the invasion but doesn't seem to have been of much help. The state department was making these plans before any real action against those responsible for 9/11.
The administration returned Iraq to the forefront, a distraction from the war on terror, as soon as they could form the shaky justification for invading. By invading Iraq, we created a new terrorist breeding ground and provided them with real-time training using our military as targets. The winners in this war are the contractors involved in the reconstruction and companies who supply the military. The losers are the Iraqi people, members of our military and the Americans who will be paying the financial price of this war about $150,000 per minute or more based on the low estimate of $6.48 billion per month.
Conditions like these were foreseen years before we chose to invade Iraq. The probable descent into civil war was one of the main reasons 41 had the "real" coalition forces stop before going into Baghdad. Planning for post-Saddam Iraq began almost 1 1/2 years before the invasion but doesn't seem to have been of much help. The state department was making these plans before any real action against those responsible for 9/11.
The administration returned Iraq to the forefront, a distraction from the war on terror, as soon as they could form the shaky justification for invading. By invading Iraq, we created a new terrorist breeding ground and provided them with real-time training using our military as targets. The winners in this war are the contractors involved in the reconstruction and companies who supply the military. The losers are the Iraqi people, members of our military and the Americans who will be paying the financial price of this war about $150,000 per minute or more based on the low estimate of $6.48 billion per month.
You are such a liar, you must be a Muslim. The "poor Iraqis" will find relief from this tragedy when Muslims stop kidnapping and Killing them. It is NOT americans that are doing this to the Iraqis, it is Iraqis and Muslims from Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. When Hussain was toppled, the Iraqis cheered the liberators, primarily Americans. But now that they are killing each other by the dozens everyday, they blame the americans. WAKE UP you IDIOTS!! YOU ARE KILLING YOURSELVES!! AMERICANS ARE NOT KILLING YOU, WE ARE TRYING TO PROTECT YOU. But you cannot protect anyone without them being willing to protect themselves. Which means that when they KNOW about a suicide bomber, they need to report it BEFORE they attack. When they know of a kidnapping plan, they should report the kidnappers, BEFORE they attack. Until the Iraqis take responsibility for themselves, they will continue to be vulnerable to their own MUSLIM killers.
Bush and his cadre of evil doers has done more damage to Iraq than Saddam Hussein ever did. On top of that the invasion caused a more determined civil war between political factions.
Hey, with friends like that, who needs enemies.
Get out now. Leave a large contingent of U.S. forces to protect the airpot, the Embassy, and to train Iraqi police and soldiers, in the Green Zone, protected by some sort of barrier. And then spend the billions of dollars it will take to reconstruct their battered country.
Enough. Get out now.