US contractor kidnapped in Iraq

A US contractor was kidnapped today in the Baghdad area, the latest in a string of abductions in the area.

A pick-up truck also exploded near a US convoy as it patrolled a crowded market in the troubled city of Samarra, killing at least three people and injuring more than 20 others, witnesses said.

A US Embassy spokesman said the contractor was working on a reconstruction project and was abducted around midday. He said the contractor’s family had been informed, but refused to release any other details.

No group immediately claimed responsibility.

In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, loudspeakers urged residents to donate blood as wounded poured into the hospital.

Most of the injured were women and children, hospital official Abdul Nasir Hamid said. The attack occurred as residents hurried home before the city’s car curfew was imposed.

Also today, the terror group al-Qaida in Iraq claimed to have carried out its second major attack against a US base in a little over a week, saying it was responsible for suicide bombers who tried to ram two cars and a fire truck into a small Marine outpost in the town of Qaim, along Iraq’s border with Syria.

The attack on a security checkpoint at Camp Gannon injured three Marines and three civilians, the US military and hospital officials said.

“The drivers of the vehicles were stopped short of the camp by forces manning the checkpoints,” the military said in a statement.

Military authorities said the explosions slightly damaged the camp’s concrete barriers and barbed wire, as well as a nearby mosque.

Insurgents also opened fire on the camp, and a US attack helicopter destroyed a car with a gunman inside, officials said. It was unclear how many insurgents and suicide bombers were killed in the assault.

Three Marines were evacuated for medical treatment.