World

2 More Bombs, 10 More Hostages

September 30, 2004 / 6:56 AM EDT / CBS/AP

As Arab TV showed new video of ten new hostages seized in Iraq, there were two new suicide bomb attacks Thursday: the first targeting the mayor's office in Abu Ghraib and hours later, another aimed at a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad.

At least 37 people were killed and another 50 wounded in the Baghdad attack, which involved at least two and possibly three bombs timed to coincide with a ceremony inaugurating a new sewage system in the neighborhood. In the Abu Ghraib attack, one GI and two Iraqi police officers were killed, and at least 60 other people - including three GIs - were injured.

"This despicable act killed not only a Multi-National Force soldier, but Iraqis who were merely going about their business of defending this country," said Lt. Col. Jim Hutton, spokesman for the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, of the Abu Ghraib attack. "The terrorists offer nothing but destruction."

The video apparently showing ten new hostages turned up Thursday on the Arab news network Al-Jazeera, which said the six Iraqis, two Lebanese and two Indonesian women were taken by The Islamic Army in Iraq. The group has claimed responsibility for seizing two French journalists last month.

In Thursday's video, two masked gunmen are pointing weapons at fthree of the hostages, who were not identified, and two masked gunmen pointing weapons at them. There was no mention of demands by the militant or when or where the hostages were captured.

The network said the 10 were employees of an electricity company.

The Frenchmen, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, disappeared Aug. 20 during a trip to the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. The Islamic Army in Iraq demanded that France revoke a new law banning Islamic head scarves from state schools.

The law went into effect as planned earlier this month. Negotiations for their release are continuing.

More than 140 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq by a range of groups, some holding them for ransom while others have set political conditions for their release. At least 26 hostages have been killed.

The release this week of seven hostages, including two Italian aid workers, has raised the hope of family members of the victims.

In other recent developments:

U.S. forces Thursday struck a suspected militant safehouse in the troubled city of Fallujah, killing at least four Iraqis.

On the outskirts of Baghdad, insurgents fired a rocket Thursday at a logistical support area for coalition forces, killing one soldier and wounding seven. No further information was disclosed - including whether it was a U.S. soldier or not.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports U.S. officials concede they are not defeating or even containing the insurgency in Iraq, which goes deeper than the daily attacks and kidnappings seen on television. A report prepared for the State Department by a private security firm says "a general trend is emerging of

attacks spreading

into historically less active areas."

A car bombing in the northern city of Mosul wounded six American soldiers, the military said Wednesday. The car bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy was passing by, wounding six American soldiers.

Iraqi security forces arrested a suspected terrorist operating on Baghdad's Haifa street, cornering him Wednesday in a closet as he disguised himself with his wife's underwear. Five other suspected insurgents were also taken into custody as U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with rebels on the main thoroughfare.

Late Tuesday, a U.S. warplane struck a rocket launcher mounted on the back of a vehicle in the Baghad slum of Sadr city, destroying the vehicle but igniting several secondary explosions. Maithem Mahmoud of the al-Sadr General Hospital said one man was killed and a woman injured in the U.S. strike.

On Wednesday, video surfaced of British hostage Kenneth Bigley, pleading for help between the bars of a makeshift cage.

The new footage, first broadcast on the Arab news network Al-Jazeera and then posted on the Internet, showed Bigley begging British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet his captors' demands.

"Tony Blair, I am begging you for my life," the 62-year-old Bigley said between sobs. "Have some compassion. Only you can help me now."

He accused Blair of lying about efforts to secure his release, saying no negotiations were taking place.

"My life is cheap. He doesn't care about me. I am just one person," the civil engineer said. "I want to go home. Please, Mr. Blair, don't leave me here."

British officials have made it clear that they will not negotiate with the kidnappers, who are threatening to behead Bigley unless all female prisoners in Iraq are freed.

Asked to respond to Bigley's plea, Blair said Wednesday evening, "I feel absolutely sick about what has happened and I feel desperately sorry not just for Ken Bigley, obviously, but for the whole of his family."

He said the government was doing everything it could to help Bigley and would respond if his captors initiated contact, but had no way to reach them.

Bigley's brother, Paul, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the images of his brother chained and caged were "absolutely appalling, there's no other word for it, heart wrenching." But he said he was pleased to see his brother alive.

"That's the good news I see through the smoke," he said. "This is a last ditch attempt, something has to be done and something has to be done very quickly."