Gunmen in Police Uniforms Kill 8 in Baghdad Store
29 March 2006
Gunmen dressed in Iraqi police commando uniforms killed eight employees, including three women, in a raid on a Baghdad electronics store early Wednesday.
Police say at least six people were wounded in the attack in the affluent Mansour district.
Gunmen kidnapped 20 Iraqis in separate attacks in Baghdad Tuesday.
In other violence Tuesday, the U.S. military said one American soldier died and three others were wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Habaniyah, west of Baghdad. Another U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire south of the capital.
Meanwhile, media reports say U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has asked one of Iraq's most prominent Shi'ite politicians (Abdul Aziz al-Hakim) to withdraw the nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for a second term.
U.S. officials recently have criticized the Jaafari government for supporting Shi'ite militias that have been fomenting sectarian violence.
U.S. officials also have been pressing Iraqis to speed up the formation of an national unity government. Iraqi leaders have been holding talks on forming a government since parliamentary elections in January.
In another development, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she has asked Russia to investigate the allegation that it gave Iraqi leaders intelligence on U.S. military plans in 2003.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov called the allegation "complete rubbish."
A Pentagon report last week quoted two Iraqis as saying Russian officials passed information on U.S. military movements to Saddam Hussein's government during the early days of the war in 2003. The Pentagon says some of the information was accurate but most of it was not and may have confused Saddam.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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