Iraq Jan.2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 18 - Ten security guards were killed after an ambush on their cars here today and a Malawian engineer in their convoy was kidnapped during the attack

On Tuesday, a kidnapped American reporter, Jill Carroll, appeared in a silent videotape broadcast by Al Jazeera television. It said her captors had threatened to kill her if the United States does not release all women held prisoner in Iraq within 72 hours

Also today, three people were found dead in an apartment in Baghdad, handcuffed and shot numerous times. An Interior Ministry official identified them as Muhammad al-Batah, his niece and Thamir Jihad. They were believed to be relatives of the defense minister.

On Tuesday, insurgent attacks across Iraq killed at least nine people, including one attack in Baghdad in which gunmen disguised in police uniforms burst into the offices of a contractor that supplies the Iraqi Army with food and shot seven workers to death, Iraqi officials said. The gunmen arrived in two sedans at Nawrooz, a Kurdish-owned caterer, at 9 p.m. in the bustling Karrada neighborhood, Interior Ministry officials said. Using pistols with silencers, they opened fire on 11 workers still in the building, killing 7.