A Black Hawk helicopter believed to be carrying 12 people crashed in northern Iraq and killed everyone aboard, while five US Marines were slain in separate weekend attacks, the military said today.

A French engineer taken hostage in Iraq last month has been found alive, police said today.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy today called for the immediate release of a French engineer held hostage in Iraq, emphasising that France had no military presence there.

TWO men strapped with explosives detonated them at Baghdad’s police academy today, killing at least 43 people and wounding 73 more, officials said, while al-Jazeera broadcast an insurgent video of a man purported to be a US security consultant.

Unidentified gunmen abducted a French engineer from outside his home as he was on his way to work today in Baghdad, police and the French foreign ministry said.