3 US troops among 16 killed in Iraq violence

* Video claims kidnapping 8 Chinese
* Kidnapped Iraqi bishop freed

BAGHDAD: A suicide car bomber killed two other people in an attack on the Baghdad offices of a leading Shia party on Tuesday, while 10 other Iraqis and three US troops were killed in further unrest.

“A suicide bomber tried to drive into the Jadriyah office of SCIRI,” said Haitham al-Husseini, a spokesman for the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a mainstream Shia religious party.

Doctor Raghad Abdel Jabbar from the nearby Yarmuk hospital said two people plus the bomber had been killed at a checkpoint some 30 metres from SCIRI’s headquarters, which are also home to party leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, according to a statement posted on the Internet. “A lion from the martyrdom-seeking brigade in the Al Qaeda Group of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers attacked the Badr organisation, the Americans’ agent, in Jadriyah district,” said the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed. Meanwhile, in Mosul where a Catholic archbishop was released after an overnight ordeal at the hands of gunmen, an Iraqi soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack, the US military said.

One of the candidates Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was fielding in the January 30 elections was killed in Basra on Tuesday. Three US soldiers were killed in western Iraq, the US military said on Tuesday. The military said in a statement the soldiers were assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force but gave no further details.

In Baquba, a policeman was killed in a mortar attack. In Baghdad’s Saidiya neighbourhood, a policeman was killed and another wounded when gunmen opened fire on their patrol, the ministry said.

A woman was also killed in a roadside bomb attack against an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad, witnesses and police said. An executed Iraqi’s body was found southwest of Baghdad, the interior ministry said.

Businessman, Raed Khalil, was also killed Monday by gunmen south of Baghdad. A civilian was shot dead in Baghdad by US troops, while an insurgent was gunned down in Tekrit. Insurgents released a video on Tuesday of eight alleged Chinese hostages in Iraq and threatened to kill them in 48 hours unless the Beijing government clarified their role in the country. “We captured these Chinese working with one of the Chinese companies helping to build American facilities in Iraq,” said a gunmen. agencies

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