Four American security guards were killed Wednesday morning when a bomb went off near a US diplomatic convoy in the southern Iraqi town of Basra, AFP reported. There were “no diplomats” among the casualties, the report added.
British forces in the area said they were investigating the incident, but that “no British forces or other multinational forces” were involved.
Latrer, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car outside a restaurant in a market in Basra Wednesday night, killing at least 15 people and wounding 10, police said.
In another development, U.S. forces freed an American who had been held hostage in Iraq for 10 months, the military said in a statement. Roy Hallums had been kidnapped on Nov. 1 along with five colleagues from a Saudi-owned company.
Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Saddam Hussein deserved to "die 100 times." "Saddam Hussein deserves to die 100 times," Talabin told Iraqi television Tuesday night.
Saddam is due to go on trial next month. Talabani said "No political decision to eliminate Saddam Hussein has been taken and the judiciary is independent." "If he had fallen into our hands during the war we were waging then we could have eliminated him, but now we have to put him on trial," he added.
