In Baghdad, a mortar hit the suburb of Salhiya early Tuesday, killing an Iraqi garbage collector and wounding another, according to The AP.
South of Baghdad, gunmen assassinated the assistant director of Mahmoudiya Hospital, the hospital's chief said Tuesday. Dr. Qassem el-Obaidi was shot dead by assailants in a car as he was driving home from work late Monday, said the hospital director, Dr. Daoud al-Ta'i. Mahmoudiya is about 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Late Monday, a roadside bomb explosion injured one U.S. soldier northwest of Baghdad, while a 107 mm rocket hit a truck at a U.S. base in Balad, wounding a Filipino for Pentagon contractor KBR Inc., the official said.
Meanwhile, kidnappers freed an Egyptian diplomat they had abducted outside a mosque, but two other groups threatened to kill four new foreign hostages.
Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, the third highest diplomat at the Egyptian mission in Baghdad, returned to work on Tuesday, a day after he was released by kidnappers demanding Egypt not dispatch security experts to Iraq.
As he arrived at the Egyptian Embassy in Mansour, northwest of Baghdad, he thanked "all the people concerned in securing his release." "Thanks to God, we are going to perform our work at the embassy, there is no problem," Qutb told reporters. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
