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Bomb kills 20 at iraq funeral { May 1 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8354658http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8354658
Bomb Kills 20 at Iraq Funeral; Australian Abducted
Sun May 1, 2005 07:00 PM ET
By Lutfi Abu Oun
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed his car into a funeral procession for a slain Kurdish official in north Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 20 people, while insurgents released a video of an Australian hostage pleading for his life.
The suicide bombing in the town of Tal Afar near Mosul, about 240 miles north of Baghdad, was the latest in a flurry of attacks after a new Iraqi government was formed last week. It also wounded 30 people, Kurdish officials said.
The bomber struck at the funeral of Taleb Wahab, a Kurdish official killed by insurgents three days ago. Wahab belonged to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said Abdel Ghani Yihya, a Kurdish official in Mosul.
Sunday's attack came after more than 15 car bombings in Baghdad that have killed dozens. They follow the formation on Thursday of Iraq's first democratically elected government in 50 years -- led by Shi'ites and Kurds who have left Sunni Muslims sidelined after dominating for decades under Saddam Hussein.
In the video tape of the hostage, a man identifying himself as Douglas Wood, a 63-year-old Australian living in California, appealed to the United States, Britain and Australia to pull their troops out of Iraq and spare his life.
"Please help me. I don't want to die," he says, sitting on the floor as two masked men armed with assault rifles and wearing bullet proof vests stand on either side.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard vowed on Monday not to give in to the hostage-takers. Australia is to send 450 more troops to Iraq over coming weeks, taking their total number in and around Iraq to about 1,400.
"We will continue to do all we can consistent with our position of not giving into hostage-takers," Howard told Australian radio.
The tape came hours after U.S. and Iraqi forces detained several men thought to be linked to the killing of aid worker Margaret Hassan, a British hostage who was seized last year.
The authenticity of the tape, which carries the banner of a previously identified group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahideen in Iraq, could not be verified.
HOSTAGE APPEAL
Wood, dressed in a short-sleeved black polo shirt, said he had worked in Iraq for more than a year and "has done many jobs with the American military." It is not clear what work he does.
A statement from the militants issued with the tape said it had been released to coincide with a visit to Iraq by Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill, who was in Baghdad on Sunday.
"My captors are fiercely patriotic. They believe in a strong, united Iraq looking after its own destiny," Wood said, his head slumped forward and his voice close to breaking.
"President Bush, Prime Minister Howard, (California) Governor Schwarzenegger, family, friends, please take the American troops, the Australian troops, the British troops out of here and let Iraq look after itself," he said, breaking down.
Almost a third of the 150 foreigners to have been seized in Iraq over the past 18 months have been killed after the captors' demands were not met.
Over the same period, an estimated 5,000 Iraqis have also been kidnapped by criminal gangs looking to earn ransom.
The tape was released on the day a minor breakthrough appeared to have been made in one of the most high-profile kidnappings of the past year, the seizure of Margaret Hassan.
Iraqi police said 11 people had been detained in raids conducted with U.S. troops south of Baghdad. Five of the detainees had admitted to complicity in her killing, they said.
Hassan, a British national who headed CARE International in Iraq, was kidnapped last October. She was killed about a month later after appealing on video tapes for British forces to withdraw from Iraq. Her body was never found.
Iraqi authorities said clothing, a bag and identification documents belonging to Hassan had been found at the scene, but a British embassy official declined to say what items were found.
At least nine other people were killed in car bombings and shootings in Baghdad on Sunday. Five policemen were shot dead at a checkpoint and a car bomb killed four others.
(Additional reporting by Luke Baker and Paul Tait in Sydney)
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