US hostage 'shot in head and chest'

The body of the only American among four Christian peace activists kidnapped late last year was found near a west Baghdad railway line with gunshots to his head and chest, Iraqi police said today.

Tom Fox, 54, from Clear Brook, Virginia, was the fifth American hostage killed in Iraq. There was no immediate word on his fellow captives, Briton Norman Kember and two Canadians.

The US command in Baghdad confirmed that Mr Fox’s body was picked up by American forces on Thursday evening, although it provided no information on the condition.

An Iraqi police patrol was also at the scene, said Falah al-Mohammedawi, an official with the Interior Ministry, which oversees police.

He said Fox was found with his hands tied and gun shot wounds to his head and chest. There were cuts on his body and bruises on his head, al-Mohammedawi said.

The FBI verified that the body was that of Fox, and his family was notified, US State Department spokesman Noel Clay said in Washington.

“The State Department continues to call for the unconditional release of all other hostages” in Iraq, the spokesman said.

Fox’s body was found near a railway line running through Dawoudi, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area that has been largely shielded from the killing that has raged in other Baghdad neighbourhoods since the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine sparked sectarian violence in Iraq.

Shocked local residents condemned his abduction and killing today.

“These acts are terrorist ones and will hinder the political process and distort the reputation of Iraq,” said Dhamir al-Samaraie, who had come to have a look at the spot where Fox was found.

At least five more people were killed in drive-by shootings today, police said.

Amjad Hamid, who was in charge of educational programmes at Iraqiya state television, was killed with his driver in Khadra, a dangerous, mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighbourhood, the channel said.

A retired government employee was gunned down near a Sunni mosque in south Baghdad, police said. And a human rights activist was killed with his bodyguard in Hawija, 150 miles north of the capital.

A roadside bomb targeting an American patrol in west Baghdad injured one soldier, the US military said. Gunmen also ambushed a police patrol and an unidentified convoy of SUVs in two parts of west Baghdad, injuring at least three policemen and five civilian bystanders, police said.

A car bomb targeting another US convoy exploded at Mishahda, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, said police Lt Ali Mohammed. There was no word on casualties. The military did not immediately comment.

The unrelenting violence has complicated already complex negotiations for Iraq’s first permanent, post-invasion government. US officials want a strong and inclusive central government in place quickly to enable Washington to begin removing some of its 32,000 troops this summer.

US and Iraqi forces conducted a series of raids in Baghdad and north of the capital, arresting 20 suspected insurgents early today.

Four suspects were detained at a west Baghdad mosque identified by the US military as a possible al Qaida in Iraq safe haven. Four others were captured at other sites in the same area, the military said in a statement. The eight were suspected of kidnapping, manufacturing car bombs and financing and supporting terrorists, the statement said.

A dozen more suspects were captured in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s ancestral hometown. They were believed to be part of an insurgent cell responsible for the killing of dozens of Narhwan-area residents after the February 22 bombing of the Shiite Askariya shrine.

Justice ministry officials will meet Tuesday to discuss the fate of Abu Ghraib prison in west Baghdad after it is handed back to Iraqi authorities, said Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim Ali. The US military said this week that it plans to start moving out thousands of detainees when a new lockup near the Baghdad airport is completed in two to three months.

Abu Ghraib has become one of the most infamous prisons in the world, known as the site where US soldiers abused some Irqi detainees and, earlier, for its torture chambers during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility for kidnapping the four Christian Peacemaker Teams members who disappeared on November 26.

Three of them – Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; and Briton Norman Kember, 74 – were seen in a video dated February 28 that was broadcast last Tuesday on Al-Jazeera television. Mr Fox did not appear in the brief, silent footage.

His Chicago-based group said: “We mourn the loss of Tom Fox, who combined a lightness of spirit, a firm opposition to all oppression, and the recognition of God in everyone.”

“In response to Tom’s passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonise others, no matter what they have done,” Christian Peacemaker co-directors Doug Pritchard and Carol Rose said in a statement.

At least 250 foreigners have been kidnapped in the nearly three years since US-led forces invaded Iraq, and at least 40 have been killed.

In one of the most high-profile cases, Jill Carroll, a freelance writer for The Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped on January 7 in Baghdad. She has appeared in three videotapes delivered by her kidnappers to Arab satellite television stations.

Ms Carroll’s kidnappers initially threatend to kill her unless all female detainees in Iraq are released. They later amended their demands, which have not been made public. The Monitor launched a campaign on Iraqi television stations last Wednesday asking Iraqis to: “Please help with the release of journalist Jill Carroll.”