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Posted on 06/01/2005 3:20:01 PM PDT by Crackingham
U.S. and Iraqi troops battled foreign fighters near the Syrian border and found the body of Anbar province's missing governor, the highest-ranking Iraqi official kidnapped since the fall of Saddam Hussein, authorities said Tuesday.
Foreign extremists are thought to be a small portion of the Sunni-dominated insurgency, although they are blamed for some of the worst bombings and other bloodshed that have killed 765 Iraqis in the month since the new government took power.
Officials said the body of Anbar Gov. Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi was found Sunday after troops engaged in a fierce firefight with foreigners holed up in a house in Rawah, a desert village 175 miles northwest of Baghdad. The battle killed two Syrians, an Algerian and a Jordanian, a U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Wes Hayes, said.
''After questioning the wounded foreign fighters, coalition forces investigated the house and discovered [al-Mahalawi's] body, which had not been shot,'' Hayes said.
An Iraqi government spokesman, Laith Kuba, said the governor apparently was killed by falling rubble.
"An Iraqi government spokesman, Laith Kuba, said the governor apparently was killed by falling rubble."
So.... we killed the guy who had been hostage for all this time. That sucks.
Kidnapped?
Or simply visiting his "buds"...?
In that screwed up world, who can KNOW for sure?
Semper Fi
Yeah, that's how I read it as well. Sounds like real collateral damage here, but you never know if they were using him as a human shield.
Makes no difference. The insurgents held him hostage and are responsible for his safety. He represents a large tribal clan in the area. God help the insurgents now.
This crap has to stop! 765!
Not to be cynical, but being the Governor of Al Anbar Province--you gotta believe the cat was assuming the risk of something really, really bad happening to him
If they had wanted to protect him, they would have cast him in a spider hole.
The media is unconcerned. In fact they encourage it.
Yup, religion of peace, those Muslims...
I sometimes wonder if these people are capable of living with anything other than a dictator.
From Al Sabah Online, a slightly different viewpoint...
IRAQI GOVERNMENT MOURNS MARTYR ANBAR GOVERNORATE
Baghdad, June 1, P3
The security forces were capable of arresting 97 suspect terrorists, besides finding several dens which include various weapons were used by terrorists through implementing their operations which targeted innocents in various areas in the country, this had announced by spokesman of the government when he mourned the martyring of Anbar Governor.The Iraqi government also mourns the martyr Nawaf Ferhan, the Anbar governor and Sheikh of al-Bo-Mahal kinship whp martyred for the sake of realizing security and eradicates terrorists outside the boarders.Dr. Laith Koba, the spokesman of the government said that the martyr had been found killed in a village, 26 km far away Rawa on May 29, 2005.Dr. Koba clarified that Nawaf had been kidnapped in May 9, 2005 after he implemented a plan to chase terrorists and insurgents in al-Qa'am region, led to the killing of 17 Takiffaries (extremists) from Arabs coming outside boards by the end of last April.He pointed out those multi-nationality forces implemented on May 29 a breaking in to the one of the villages north Rawa, meanwhile these forces had confronted a very intensive fires from one of the houses in the village, the multi-nationality forces had used all their weapons, broke in a house and arrested three wounded insurgents and four killed men, all of them are from Arabs: Jordanian, Algerian and Saudi nationalities. The forces found the Governor corpse was bound with LPG cylinder. Investigations exposed that he died due to the explosion took place near him, referring that his body was subjected to different shrapnel in his body.For his side, an official source at the Interior Ministry clarified that police forces had capable to arrest number of terrorists through their attempt to plant explosive charges north the city of Baghdad. They also found a weapons' den in al-Dora neighborhood, near one of the schools. This den was included various kinds of weapons: mortars 60 m.m, RBG7 Gun, 82 m.m. in addition to two guns, one of them 155 m.m. and the second 120 m.m., all of them were destroyed at the same site.
and what the hell are foreign fighters doing in Iraq.. kidnapping governors? Iraqi pepople should be fuming at these foreign terrorists.
One nuclear bobm would clean a lot of this mess up!
Yeah, a bullet fell on his brain.
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