Gunmen kill Turk in video assassination

MASKED gunmen killed a Turkish hostage with three gunshots to the head, according to a video posted on the Internet, and the Turkish truckers' union said yesterday it would stop supplying US forces in Iraq, bowing to militant demands in hopes of saving two other captive Turks.

Also yesterday, Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric condemned as "hideous crimes" the co-ordinated bomb attacks on five churches in Baghdad and Mosul that killed at least seven people and marked the insurgency's first major attacks on Iraq's minority Christians.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani said in a statement that Sunday's assaults on churches "targeted Iraq's unity, stability and independence".