Free Republic

A Muslim cleric has claimed to have been tortured with electric shocks, left in a cell where rats crawled on him and threatened with rape after he was allegedly kidnapped from a Milan street by CIA agents three years ago.The claims of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, appeared in an affidavit provided to Milan prosecutors investigating his alleged abduction in February 2003, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported yesterday. Prosecutors say that the cleric, who was formerly suspected of links to terrorism, was driven to the Aviano military air base and flown via Germany to...

WITH THE THIRD INFANTRY, Central Iraq, Saturday, March 29 — A Iraqi suicide bomber killed five U.S. soldiers today by luring them to his taxi cab at a checkpoint north of Najaf and then detonating an explosive, an army spokesman in the region said. The attack occurred north of Najaf on a road west of the Euphrates River. The victims were all members of the division's First Brigade, which has been involved in significant fighting around the city since last weekend. Capt. Andrew J. Valles, the civil affairs officer for the First Brigade, said the attack occurred just after noon...