The governor of western Iraq's volatile Anbar province has been killed during clashes between U.S. forces and the insurgents who abducted him, the Iraqi government said Tuesday. Meanwhile, four American and four Italian military personnel were killed in separate aircraft crashes, military officials said.
Government spokesman Laith Kuba said the body of Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi, who was abducted May 10, was found two days ago in the village of Rawah, about 175 miles northwest of Baghdad.
The U.S. military confirmed his death and that his family had identified his body on Tuesday in Qaim, an Iraqi city near the Syrian border, which was the scene of a major U.S. offensive earlier this month.
A military spokesman said a U.S. helicopter had flown al-Mahalawi's body to Qaim on Monday. He did not elaborate on how he was killed nor when his body was found.
Al-Mahalawi was found tied to a gas cylinder inside a house following a fierce gun battle between U.S. forces and insurgents holed up in the house, Kuba, the Iraqi government spokesman, said.
In other recent developments:
Iraq's insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi made an audio address to Osama bin Laden on Monday to assure the al Qaeda leader that al-Zarqawi was in good health after being wounded in a fire fight with U.S. troops in Iraq. Calling himself a soldier reporting to his commander, al-Zarqawi tells bin Laden he was only slightly injured in recent battle, denying what he called confusing media reports that he had been gravely wounded, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier. There was no way to confirm that the voice was that of Jordanian-born terror leader al-Zarqawi.Iraq's prime minister condemned the arrest of a top Sunni political leader by U.S. troops. The arrest of Abdul-Hamid, his three sons and four guards on Monday was also condemned by Iraq's president and prime minister plus the leaders of Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups. "We condemned as early as possible (the arrest of Abdul-Hamid) ... and from now on we will confront these matters so we can be sure they won't be repeated again in the future," Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told reporters Tuesday. The U.S. military acknowledged it had made a "mistake" by detaining Abdul-Hamid.The arrests came after the launch of Operation Lightning, a large-scale anti-insurgent campaign that entered its third day Tuesday. The operation, which will see more than 40,000 Iraqi security forces deployed to the capital's streets, aims at ridding Baghdad of militants and, in particular, suicide car bombers, the deadliest and regular weapon of choice for insurgents. "We have so far achieved good results and rounded up a large number of saboteurs, some are Iraqis and some are non-Iraqis," al-Jaafari said without elaborating. A senior U.S. Official says hundreds of suspects have been arrested, Dozier reports.Gunmen shot dead Jerges Mohammed Sultan, an Iraqi journalist working for Iraqi state TV channel Al-Iraqiya, as he left his house in the northern city of Mosul, said Dr. Baha-aldin al-Bakri from al-Jumhouri hospital. A suicide car bomber killed two Iraqi soldiers in an early morning attack on an army checkpoint near Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, said Diyala provincial police spokesman Ali Fadhil.Al-Jaafari said Syria's prime minister and foreign minister have asked to visit Iraq to discuss relations, particularly security, between the neighboring states. Al-Jaafari has also said he plans to visit Damascus soon. U.S. and Iraqi officials want Syria to do more to stop foreign fighters entering Iraq to launch attacks here.
A U.N. agency said Tuesday it has launched a $10 million project in Iraq to protect livestock and humans from epidemic diseases. Veterinary services in Iraq have been severely damaged by years of neglect and post-conflict upheavals, said the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). South Korean forces in Iraq have been placed on alert and ordered to stay inside their barracks following an attack on their base, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. Four shells fell near the South Korean base outside the northern Iraqi town of Irbil on Monday in what South Korean media called the first attack on Seoul's forces in the country. There were no deaths or injuries and no arrests were made.The Iraqi single-engine Comp Air 7SL aircraft crashed near the village of Jalula, about 80 miles northeast of Baghdad, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Fred Wellman.
The aircraft, one of seven used by the Iraqi Air Force for surveillance and personnel transport, had departed a Kirkuk air base bound for Jalula when it crashed, the military said in a statement. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, which killed four U.S. Air Force members and an Iraqi pilot, Wellman said.
The Italian AB-412 military helicopter crashed overnight killing its two Italian pilots and two gunmen, all attached to the army, about 8 miles southeast of Nasiriyah, Italian military spokesman Lt. Col. Fabio Mattiassi said Tuesday. Most of Italy's 3,000 troops are based in Nasiriyah. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Some 26 Italian military personnel, including intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, have been killed in Iraq.
Defense Undersecretary Filippo Berselli told lawmakers that the deaths "strengthen the awareness of the risks and difficulties of the mission." But, he added, "the complexity and delicacy of the situation ... should not make us withdraw our support."
Briefing parliament shortly after news of the crash, Berselli also said the Defense Ministry had launched an "all-out investigation" into its cause.
The helicopter was returning from Kuwait's international airport and had stopped to refuel at Camp Buehring, also in Kuwait. Radio contact was lost soon after takeoff from the camp, the statement said. A rescue team found the wreckage at dawn in the desert close to the Tallill air base near Nasiriyah.
The victims were identified by the military as Lt. Col. Giuseppe Lima, 39, and Corp. Marco Briganti, 33, the two pilots; Sgt. Massimiliano Biondini, 33; and Sgt. Marco Cirillo, 29, the two machine gunners.