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Police Discover Decapitated Body in Iraq

Posted on: Thursday, 22 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Police discovered a decapitated body in an orange jumpsuit and a head in a bag on the banks of the Tigris River, authorities said Thursday, leading to fears a second Bulgarian hostage had been killed.

The deepening hostage crises across Iraq prompted Kenya to call its citizens home Thursday and further complicated Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's efforts to persuade reluctant nations to join the coalition and send troops here.

In new violence Thursday, insurgents fought a running gunbattle with U.S. soldiers on Haifa Street in central Baghdad during a sweep of suspected militants, officials said. Six Iraqis were wounded, Health Ministry official Saad al-Amili said.

Iraqi forces arrested 270 people, including several "non-Iraqi Arabs," and discovered a huge cache of weapons, Interior Ministry official Sabah Khadum said. U.S. officials said only 48 suspected criminals and insurgents were arrested.

Also Thursday, U.S. Marines said they had killed 25 insurgents, injured 17 and captured 25 others during a large gunbattle in the western city of Ramadi on Wednesday. Fourteen Marines sustained non life-threatening injuries, and 10 returned to their duties, the Marines said.

Iraq has been plagued by a 15-month-old insurgent campaign marked by car bombings, gun battles, sabotage and other violence. In recent months, the militants have begun taking foreigners hostages in an effort to force their countries to leave the coalition and the companies employing them to stop doing business here.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that a beheaded body discovered in the Tigris last week was that of Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov, who had been kidnapped along with another Bulgarian, Ivaylo Kepov.

Kepov's fate remained unknown, but Iraqi police said Thursday they had discovered a second decapitated body, along with a severed head, on banks of the Tigris on Wednesday night in Beiji, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad.

The body was clad in a ripped orange garment of the type kidnappers have forced some captives to wear before beheading them, said Beiji police official Taha Abdullah.

The Iraqi police brought the body to the morgue in Tikrit Hospital, said Adel Fadel, head of the morgue. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry confirmed the discovery, but had no details on the body's identity.

A group affiliated with Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it had kidnapped the Bulgarians and demanded Iraqi detainees be released in exchange for their lives. The group later sent a tape to Al-Jazeera television that reportedly showed Lazov being killed.

Another group, calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," announced Wednesday it had abducted two Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian and said it would behead a captive every 72 hours beginning Saturday night if their trucking company did not agree to stop doing business here and their countries did not agree to withdraw their troops and citizens.

A new video broadcast Thursday showed a third Kenyan, also working for the Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport Co., with the other six hostages.

"KGL sent us by force to Iraq. Now they (the captors) have caught us. They say we are siding with America," one of the captives, identified as Tilak Raj Jarib Das, said in the new video.

Kenya, India and Egypt are not members of the 160,000-member U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq. But Kenya responded to the militants' demand Thursday by calling on it citizens to leave Iraq.

"We assure them (the insurgents) that Kenya has no intent of interfering with the lives of the Iraqi people and that we are discouraging our citizens from participating in work that takes them to Iraq," Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said.

Iraqi and coalition officials had worried that kidnappings could increase in the wake of a Philippine government decision to pull its troops from Iraq in order to secure the release of Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz, who was being held by militants. Dela Cruz was released Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Allawi struggled to broaden the coalition, asking Egypt "to talk to some Arab and Islamic leaders to send forces to protect (a U.N. mission in the country)," he told reporters in Cairo.

An official in the Egyptian president's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that Egypt would send troops if other Arabs did so first. On Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit had said: "Egypt will not send forces in any case."

Allawi's comments came a day after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world body had not received one firm commitment of troops six weeks after the Security Council authorized a separate force to protect U.N. staff.

Kenya's decision Thursday made it the latest nation to tell its people to leave Iraq, where nearly 70 foreigners have been taken hostage in recent months.

Egypt told its nationals to stop seeking work here earlier this month after the kidnapping of a different Egyptian driver - who was later freed.

In the wake of its hostage crisis, Bulgaria refused to withdraw its troops, but told Bulgarian truck drivers to stop making trips into Iraq. The Philippines has also said no more of its contract workers should be sent here.

Thousands of foreign contractors work in critical service jobs with the U.S. military. Others help in reconstruction projects and still others haul cargo for private companies, work that is vital to normalizing Iraq's postwar economy.

"This is occurring while the Bush administration is trying to internationalize the conflict and it is making it difficult for the U.S. government to convince countries to provide military or reconstruction support in Iraq if other countries are packing up and leaving," said Charles Pena, director of defense policy studies at the U.S-based Cato Institute, a libertarian-oriented thinktank Cato Institute.

Meanwhile, Indian, Kenyan and Egyptian officials were working together to try to free the seven hostages, an Indian official in New Delhi said on condition of anonymity.

"The hostages are noncombatants, and I appeal to all those who have influence to assist in ensuring the safe return home of these innocent people," Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh said in Pakistan.

Their company, KGL, identified the men as Mohammed Ali Ahmed, Egyptian, 36; Antaryami Ram Morte, Indian, 32; Tilak Raj Jarib Das, Indian, 38; Sukhdev Singh Sher Singh, Indian, 31; Jalal Mohammed Awadh, Kenyan, 42; Faiz Khamis Salim, Kenyan, 40; and Ibrahim Khamis Idd, Kenyan, 50.

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