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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: steve harris who wrote (192296)6/29/2004 12:26:28 PM
From: tejek  Respond to of 1578705
 
Three Turkish hostages released, official says
Three Marines killed in roadside bomb attack in Baghdad

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Posted: 12:19 PM EDT (1619 GMT)



BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three Turkish hostages were released Tuesday in Iraq, while three U.S. Marines were killed in a roadside bomb attack.

The three Turks told their government they have been freed, according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry official. Their kidnappers had threatened to behead the men unless Turkish companies stopped doing business with the U.S. military in Iraq.

A Turkish spokesman said the men informed the Turkish government they were returning to Turkey.

The men had been abducted by a group led by suspected al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (Full story)

In Baghdad, three Marines were killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as their humvee passed by the device, the Coalition Press Information Center said.

The improvised explosive device hit the lead vehicle in a Marine convoy, according to a U.S. soldier who was supervising the removal of the damaged humvee.

The humvee -- with flattened tires, a crumpled front end and blood splattered inside -- was hooked up to a military tow truck and hauled away Tuesday morning.

The total number of troops killed in the Iraqi war is 857.

Saddam transfer set for Wednesday
The new Iraq government will assume legal custody Wednesday of former dictator Saddam Hussein and as many as 11 other key officials of his regime, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday.

Allawi said all will face trial on charges of crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes in the Iraqi Special Tribunal, set up late last year. (Full story)

He also said Hussein and the others will be charged by an Iraqi investigative judge Thursday.

The prisoners will remain in coalition military custody until the Iraqi security apparatus is ready to hold them, Allawi said, but they will be legally in Iraqi custody until their trials.

"We will likely not see the trial of Saddam and his associates for a number of months," the prime minister said. "I urge the Iraqi people to be patient."

Saddam was captured in December by U.S. forces near his hometown of Tikrit.

Marine's brother begs for his release
The brother of a U.S. Marine missing in Iraq told CNN on Tuesday that the blindfolded man shown in a video with a curved sword above his head is definitely his brother -- and he pleaded for whomever was holding him to "just release him."

"He's just a soldier doing his job like any other person," Sami Hassoun said in a telephone interview from his home in Beirut, Lebanon. "Please leave him, for the sake of God, for the sake of his mom and dad."

The U.S. military said that Cpl. Wassef Hassoun, a Marine translator, was last seen on June 19 and reported missing on June 20, but it has been unable to confirm that he was kidnapped or captured.

In the videotape broadcast Sunday on the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera, a man identified as Hassoun appeared as the captive of armed men. His captors threatened to kill him unless U.S. military authorities release Iraqi prisoners.

"It is him, 100 percent," Sami Hassoun said. "I wish it was not him."

"We're Muslims like they are," he said. "It is not possible that Islam says to kill these people. And there's no religion in the whole world that supports a kidnapper and a killer. No morals, no ethics."

Al-Jazeera: Militants kill missing soldier
Al-Jazeera reported it has received a statement and a videotape from militants who claimed to have killed 20-year-old U.S. Army Spc. Matt Maupin, missing since April 9.

The network aired a video of Maupin that closely resembled a tape from his captors soon after his capture.

That was followed by a second or two of dark, grainy footage showing someone kneeling on the ground with his back to the camera. Al-Jazeera said Monday the statement from the group said its members shot Maupin.

cnn.com