Four foreign aid workers were kidnapped in Iraq. The humanitarian workers are reported to have been taken hostage in Baghdad on Saturday. Brigadier Hussein Kamal, the deputy interior minister for intelligence, said on Sunday he had received a report that two Canadians and a Briton working for a relief organizations had been kidnapped.
A British spokeswoman for the Foreign Office added: "We are aware of reports of a missing British national in Iraq and are investigating urgently."
A U.S. soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division was killed Friday when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, reports said Sunday.
Elsewhere, seven Iraqi soldiers died Sunday in two separate roadside bombing attacks in Iraq's city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army said it had received information confirming the killing of a top aide to the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Bilal Mahmud Awad Shebah, also known as Abu Ubaydah, was killed in an Oct. 14 raid in Ramadi, the U.S. command said in a statement, cited by the AP. The confirmation came from "a close family member as well as coalition sources," the statement added.
In another development, Iraqi police have detained eight Sunnis in the northern city of Kirkuk for allegedly plotting to assassinate the investigating judge who prepared the case against Saddam Hussein, a senior police commander said Sunday. Saddam's trial is set to resume on Monday after a five-week break.
