IRAQ: Eleven Iraqis, including women and children, were killed yesterday in clashes between US forces and insurgents near the Iraqi flashpoint city of Falluja, hospital sources said.
Witnesses said heavy clashes broke out in Karma after insurgents attacked a US military convoy using mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
They said at least two US military vehicles had been damaged and troops had cordoned off the area, but it was unclear whether there were any American casualties. The US military had no immediate comment.
Ahmed Ghani, a doctor at Falluja's main hospital, said 11 Iraqis had been killed and more than 20 wounded. A call was put out for locals to donate blood to help the wounded.
Earlier yesterday, US-led special forces freed three Italians and a Pole held hostage in Iraq and captured some of their abductors in a bloodless rescue mission in Iraq, coalition officials said.
"This was a happy ending to a story that could have been tragic," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on state television.
He said the men were being flown by helicopter to Baghdad and were due to return to Italy on Wednesday.
Four Italians working for a US security firm were abducted on April 12th near Baghdad. One was killed after Italy refused to bow to demands to withdraw its 2,700 troops from Iraq. The Polish businessman was seized at his Baghdad office last week. Later a Turkish hostage was freed but another Turk abducted with him the previous day remained in captivity, the Turkish embassy in Baghdad said.
The embassy initially said both Tarkan Arikoglu and Adnan Azizoglu had been freed, but later said only the latter had been released.
While Iraq's hostage crisis eased yesterday, insurgents earlier detonated two car bombs that killed 13 Iraqis and a US soldier. The bombers struck ahead of a UN Security Council vote that was expected to approve Iraq's transition from occupation to rule by an interim government on June 30th.
In the northern city of Mosul, a taxi carrying three men blew up near the mayor's office, witnesses said.
The US military said at least nine Iraqis were killed and 25 wounded. Some bodies were charred beyond recognition.
An hour earlier, a car bomb exploded outside a US base in the town of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqis and a US soldier. The US military said 10 soldiers, one foreign contractor and six Iraqis were wounded.
Six soldiers from eastern Europe were killed while disposing of ammunition from an Iraqi depot in the Polish-run occupation zone yesterday, a Polish military spokesman said.
"They were working on destroying ammunition stocks from Saddam Hussein's army," said Colonel Zdzislaw Gnatowski, spokesman for Poland's general staff.
"They're removing munitions from depots and detonating them, and while they were unloading them from a vehicle something exploded, most likely an air-launched bomb."
Colonel Gnatowski said three Slovaks, two Poles and one Latvian were killed in the explosion at about 9 am near the city of al-Suvariya, and several others were wounded. He was unable to confirm the nationalities of the wounded.
Latvian Defence Ministry spokesman Ivars Grinbergs confirmed a Latvian soldier had been killed.
"I can confirm that a Latvian soldier was killed today in an explosion in Iraq," he said, but declined to make any further comment.
A Polish-led multinational force, which includes troops from 17 countries - mostly from Eastern Europe and Asia - runs the south-central occupation zone around the holy city of Kerbala - one of four such zones. Poland has one of the largest contingents in the US-led coalition, with 2,400 troops.
Meanwhile, Iraqi crude oil sales since last year's US-led invasion have risen to more than $10.3 billion, according to the US-led authority governing Iraq.
The Coalition Provisional Authority had deposited a total of $10.38 billion in its Development Fund for Iraq as of last Thursday, it said in an internet posting.
Of the total oil proceeds put in the fund since it was set up on May 28, 2003, $372 million was deposited during the week ending last Thursday, compared with $493 million the previous week, according to the provisional authority's website.
- (Reuters)