Iraqis protest for kidnappers to release Hassan

AS violence raged across Iraq, hundreds of Iraqis demanded the release of Irish-born Iraqi hostage Margaret Hassan, saying she had touched many people with her humanitarian work.

Demonstrators, holding banners and pictures of Ms Hassan outside the Care International office in Baghdad which she directed, said Ms Hassan had spent years in Iraq helping the disabled.

“Freedom for Margaret,” said one banner. “Please release Margaret Hassan who has helped us,” read another.

A group of armed men, including one in a police uniform, seized Ms Hassan on her way to work last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, car bombs and clashes killed 12 Iraqis and three Australian troops were wounded in the first attack on their contingent since the end of the Iraq war.

The Australians were hurt when a car bomb blew up near the Australian embassy in central Baghdad. The blast killed three Iraqis and wounded at least six.

“This is the first time that Australian vehicles have been attacked by a direct enemy action,” Australian Defence Force spokesman Brigadier Mike Hannan said in Canberra.

Reuters television footage showed three corpses covered in blankets and an Australian armoured vehicle knocked off the road at the scene of the morning blast in Hurriya Square.

Australian troops in Baghdad are engaged in diplomatic protection, not security operations. There were no diplomats travelling with the convoy when the bomb went off.

Australia was one of the first nations to join the US-led war in Iraq, sending about 2,000 troops, but it has since scaled down its force to about 920 in and around Iraq.

Iraq’s US-backed interim government is struggling to contain violence ahead of elections in January.

The top United Nations elections expert in Iraq, Carlos Valenzuela, said credible polls can be held on time despite relentless bombings and kidnappings.

Fighting continued in Iraq’s Sunni Muslim central heartland, the epicentre of opposition to US troops.

Five civilians were killed during clashes between US forces and insurgents in the rebellious western city of Ramadi, local hospital director Abdul Moneim Aftan said.