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Gunmen snatch comrade from Iraq hospital, kill 3

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 December 2005, 13:04 CST

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.

Source: REUTERS

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