Winks Blog

Saddam's Lawyer Killed, 85 Workers Abducted, And Bombings Kill Several

Good afternoon,

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants went on a hunger strike Wednesday to protest the killing of a top attorney on the ousted Iraqi leader's defense team. Meanwhile, gunmen about 85 workers north of Baghdad, forcing them into a bus and a minivan. Later, 30 of them were released.

Saddam's lawyers said they were not deterred by the brutal slaying of Khamis al-Obeidi and would forge ahead with their closing arguments when he again takes the stand next month on charges of crimes against humanity.

Khalil al-Dulaimi, Saddam's chief defense lawyer, said the ousted leader and his seven co-defendants "went on a hunger strike today to protest the killing of Khamis al-Obeidi."

"They pledged not to end the strike until international protection is provided to the defense team," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press in Amman. He said he received "the information directly from inside the green zone," but declined to elaborate.

The assassination of al-Obeidi came as violence escalated with the abduction of about 85 workers as they left work at an industrial plant north of Baghdad, police and a witness said.

Police later said about 30 people, all women and children, were later released. The motive for the mass kidnapping was unclear, but police said the assailants apparently looked at peoples identity cards. They gave no other details, but in Iraq, you can often determine someone's ethnic, sectarian and tribal affiliation from their names.

The workers were thought to be mostly Shiite while the plant is located in a predominantly Sunni Arab area that has seen a great deal of insurgent activity.

The workers were taken at the al-Nasr General Complex in Taji, a former military plant that now makes metal doors, windows and pipes.

Kamel Mohammed, an engineer at the plant, said by telephone he saw two of the factory's buses and a minivan being intercepted by gunmen in three sedans. The buses are used ferry workers from the plant to the Shiite areas of Shula and Hurrayah in Baghdad.

It was the most recent case involving mass abductions. On June 6, gunmen in police uniforms raided a business district in central Baghdad, seizing 50 people, including travelers, merchants and vendors selling tea and sandwiches. Both Shiites and Sunnis worked in the area. Little has been heard about them since then.

The assassination of al-Obeidi, a Sunni Arab who represented Saddam and his half brother Barzan Ibrahim in their eight-month-old trial, was just one in about a dozen killings.

In one of those acts of violence, Iraqi Trade Minster Abdul Falah al-Soudani called for the suspension of all trade with Australia because he said Australian security guards had killed two people _ including one of his guards _ and wounded three others after a misunderstanding inside his ministry's parking lot.

An al-Qaida-led insurgent group said in a Web statement that decided to kill four Russian diplomats kidnapped in Baghdad on June 3 after a deadline for meeting its demands passed.

The statement, which did not say whether the decision has been carried out, came a day after the same group claimed responsibility for killing two abducted U.S. soldiers whose bodies were found south of Baghdad.

In other violence today according to police:

_ A parked car bomb also exploded near an ice cream shop in Sadr City on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding eight.

_ A roadside bomb missed a police patrol in central Fallujah, west of Baghdad, killing two people civilians and wounding another four.

_ Gunmen killed police Maj. Rahim al-Alousi as he was standing near his house in Hit, 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of Baghdad.

_ A policeman was killed during clashes between Iraqi police and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul. Two other men, including an Iraqi army officer, were also killed in a Mosul drive-by shooting. Three unidentified bullet-ridden bodies were also found.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 1:16 PM