Gunmen snatch comrade from Iraq hospital, kill 3

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) – Gunmen in police uniforms freed a
suspected guerrilla from an Iraqi hospital on Wednesday,
killing three guards and wounding five in the process, the head
of security at the clinic in the northern city of Kirkuk said.

There was some confusion over the identity of the wounded
suspect, with some police officers saying he was being held in
connection with a plot uncovered to assassinate the magistrate
who prepared the trial of Saddam Hussein and other senior
officers denying that was the case.

Police Brigadier Sarhat Kadir said the man who broke out,
aided by about 15 gunmen, had been detained the previous
evening and was wounded resisting arrest as he planted a
roadside bomb. He denied remarks attributed to him elsewhere
that linked the suspect to a plot against investigating judge
Raad Jouhi.

But police Colonel Adel Zain Abideen said the man, whom he
named as Yusuf Ahmed, was indeed involved in the plot.

Police arrested eight people in Kirkuk last month with
bomb-making equipment and a purported letter from Saddam’s
fugitive lieutenant Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri ordering the judge’s
killing.