A car bomb activated by remote control in western Baghdad on Monday killed two civilians, including one woman, and injured four people, police said. Elsewhere, four gunmen killed a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Party's Mosul branch, a party spokesman said. According to The AP, Jirjis Mohammed Amin was shot inside his sister's home in the northern city.
A second attack by gunmen in Mosul killed a bodyguard of the provincial Nineveh governor, police said. He was killed in front of his home in the eastern part of the city, which is the capital of Nineveh province.
Elsewhere, gunmen in Baghdad killed an Iraqi painting contractor who worked with a U.S. military base, doctors said. Separately, the Iraqi army found the beheaded corpse of an unidentified man with his hands tied behind his back Monday in Bani Zaid village, north of Baghdad, police said.
Kidnappers who seized Egypt's top envoy to Baghdad over the weekend have yet to make contact with the authorities or present any demands, Egyptian and Iraqi officials were quoted on Monday by Reuters.
More than 36 hours after Ihab el-Sherif was snatched by gunmen off a Baghdad street, no group had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. Sherif's empty four-wheel drive car was found by police on Sunday.
Diplomats have speculated that Sherif was kidnapped to send a political message to Arab nations not to deepen their ties to the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, US forces arrested last month an Al-Qaeda member in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a statement for the Multi-National Forces said Monday.
The US forces arrested Tunisian national, Emad Nasser Ahmad, known as Abu Hamza during a raid in Mosul, the statement added.
According to the statement, Abu Hamza is responsible for bringing to Iraq Arab "militants" and sheltering over 100 suicide bombers to carry out their attacks in Mosul.
In the meantime, US and British aid intended for Iraq’s police service is being shifted to paramilitary commando units accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings, according to a report.
Iraqi Police Service officers stated that ammunition, weapons and vehicles earmarked for the IPS are being taken by shock troops at the forefront of Iraq’s new "counter-insurgency" war.
The allegations follow an extensive probe by The Observer into serious human rights abuses being conducted by "anti-insurgency" troops in Iraq.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
