Suspected Car Bomb Explodes in Baghdad, Two Dead

Reuters ^ | 11/02/04

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suspected car bomb exploded outside the Education Ministry in central Baghdad on Tuesday and a Reuters witness saw two dead bodies and four wounded people.

He said the blast in the Iraqi capital's Adhamiya district damaged the ministry building and destroyed half a dozen vehicles.

[TexKat]

Gunmen Free Two Iraqis, Hold American and Nepali

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two Iraqi security guards said on Tuesday they were freed by kidnappers overnight but that the gunmen were still holding an American and a Nepali also seized from a villa used by a Saudi company in Baghdad.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's kidnapping.

The two Iraqis, initially described only as Arabs, returned to the villa after being freed during the night.

They told a Reuters cameraman the kidnappers were still holding the American and Nepali.

A third guard was killed when the gunmen attacked the villa in the affluent Mansour district of the Iraqi capital.

"They stormed the villa with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. They had no chance," said a policeman.

The American and Nepali work for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Contracting Company (Satco), a Riyadh-based company owned by Saudi and Lebanese businessmen that supplies U.S. forces in Iraq, according to executives who know the firm.

At least 25 foreigners from a dozen countries are thought to be held by kidnappers trying to drive U.S.-led forces and foreign workers from Iraq.

Scores of foreigners have been abducted since April. Many have been freed but more than 35 have been killed, several of them beheaded.

The last two Americans to be kidnapped in Iraq were beheaded by a militant group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that demanded U.S.-led forces free women detainees.

The two Americans, both construction contractors, were snatched from their home in Mansour, along with a British engineer who was also decapitated.

The body and severed head of a Japanese backpacker kidnapped by Zarqawi's group was found on a Baghdad street on Saturday.

Three truckers, from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Somalia, were reported kidnapped last week. An Iraqi-British woman and an Iraqi-Polish woman have also been seized in the last two weeks. Kidnappers have held two French journalists hostage since August.