Nickdfresh
04-13-2005, 04:12 PM
Kidnapped American is company president
12 Iraqi security guards killed trying to defuse bomb
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Posted: 2:44 PM EDT (1844 GMT)
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WORLD/meast/04/13/iraq.main/story.ake.jpg
Al-Jazeera aired video of men pointing weapons at a hostage believed to be American Jeffrey Ake.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/13/iraq.main/index.html)) -- A hostage shown in a videotape on an Arabic language satellite TV network Wednesday is the American executive who was kidnapped Monday at a construction site in Baghdad, according to a U.S. Embassy official.
Jeffrey Ake, president and chief executive officer of a machine manufacturing firm, was seen in the video being held at gunpoint by militants.
His name was not released until the broadcast on Arabic-language TV network Al Jazeera.
He works for Equipment Express, based in the northwestern Indiana community of Rolling Prairie, which makes machinery for packaging liquids.
A U.S. Embassy official confirmed that an identification card shown in the video had Ake's name. His image on Al Jazeera matched local news photos of him in stories about the company.
Al-Jazeera aired video of armed men pointing their machine guns at the hostage. On the tape the man isn't heard speaking, but Al-Jazeera reports he is asking the U.S. government to open a dialogue with the insurgents and that U.S. troops leave Iraq.
News stories in Indiana newspapers featured on the company Web site say the firm devised a system to provide water bottles in Baghdad.
A person who answered the company's phone had no comment when asked about the abduction and the news footage.
Dozen killed by bomb
Also on Wednesday, 12 Iraqi security guards were killed as they worked to defuse a bomb in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, officials said Wednesday.
The fatal bombing just north of Kirkuk struck security forces charged with guarding the infrastructure of that region's oil industry, which has been victimized by saboteurs.
Iraqi security forces and Northern Oil Co. officials said two of the 12 killed were officers in the Oil Guards unit.
Most of Iraq's oil comes from the southern facilities, where exports reach about 1.5 million barrels per day.
But insurgents have often attacked pipelines and plants in the Kurdish-controlled north and oil production numbers in Iraq remain lower than prewar figures.
More bombings, attacks
A car bomb targeted a U.S. Defense Department convoy on the road to the Baghdad airport, a U.S. military spokesman said. He said there were minor injuries, but gave no further details.
Soon afterward, a car bomb wounded three Iraqi civilians in the western Baghdad neighborhood of al-Amiriya.
Also Wednesday, a high-ranking official with Iraq's Interior Ministry was critically wounded when gunmen attacked his car as he drove to work, Iraqi police said.
Col. Naji Hussein and his driver were wounded by small arms fire while driving through the al-Dora district of southeast Baghdad, police said.
Insurgents also targeted U.S. convoys with three bombs in Baghdad, wounding several bystanders.
No Americans were reported killed, a U.S. military spokesman said.
The attacks come a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to Baghdad, praising Iraq for its fledgling democracy and noting improvements in the country's security forces.
From Iraq, Rumsfeld traveled Wednesday to Afghanistan. He arrived in Kandahar to meet with U.S. commanders and forces fighting in the war on terrorism. He also met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (Full story)
Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick made his own surprise visit to Iraq on Wednesday.
Bush addresses soldiers in Texas
President Bush, speaking to cheering soldiers Tuesday at Fort Hood in Texas, said Iraqi forces are making strides in training and are gaining the confidence of the Iraqi people and American forces.
In the past six months, Bush said, "More than 800 [Iraqis] have given their lives in the struggle."
The president said Iraqi forces are becoming more self-reliant and are shouldering greater responsibilities, with the United States and other coalition partners playing more of a support role.
Bush noted the more than 150,000 trained and equipped forces surpass the number of American forces in Iraq for the first time.
Other developments
# A U.S. Army soldier serving with the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, died in combat Tuesday in the Sunni Triangle.The Marines said in a news release that "enemy small-arms fire" killed the soldier during combat operations in Ramadi. The identity of the soldier is "being withheld pending notification of next of kin." The death brings the total of U.S. casualties to 1,548.
# The Iraqi government said Tuesday its forces captured an insider from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime at a farm northeast of the capital. Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud al-Mashadani, a former high-ranking member of Saddam's Baath Party, was among "the main facilitators of many terrorist attacks in Iraq," the government said. The Iraqi government had posted a $200,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
# For the first time since the Vietnam War, a U.S. soldier faces court-martial in the killing of other soldiers during wartime. The trial of Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar -- accused in a March 2003 grenade attack that killed two U.S. officers in Kuwait -- is ongoing. (Full story)
# The new president of Ukraine has signed a decree ordering his country's troops to leave Iraq by year's end, the Russian news agency Interfax reported Wednesday. In signing the decree -- considered a formality -- President Viktor Yushchenko is living up to a promise he made during last year's presidential campaign that he would bring the troops, who once numbered 1,650, home.
# Poland will withdraw troops from Iraq at the end of the year, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said Tuesday, Reuters reported. The U.S. ally has about 1,700 soldiers in south-central Iraq, where it runs a multinational stabilization force. (Full story)
CNN's Kevin Flower, Ayman Mohyeldin, Octavia Nasr and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
12 Iraqi security guards killed trying to defuse bomb
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Posted: 2:44 PM EDT (1844 GMT)
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WORLD/meast/04/13/iraq.main/story.ake.jpg
Al-Jazeera aired video of men pointing weapons at a hostage believed to be American Jeffrey Ake.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/13/iraq.main/index.html)) -- A hostage shown in a videotape on an Arabic language satellite TV network Wednesday is the American executive who was kidnapped Monday at a construction site in Baghdad, according to a U.S. Embassy official.
Jeffrey Ake, president and chief executive officer of a machine manufacturing firm, was seen in the video being held at gunpoint by militants.
His name was not released until the broadcast on Arabic-language TV network Al Jazeera.
He works for Equipment Express, based in the northwestern Indiana community of Rolling Prairie, which makes machinery for packaging liquids.
A U.S. Embassy official confirmed that an identification card shown in the video had Ake's name. His image on Al Jazeera matched local news photos of him in stories about the company.
Al-Jazeera aired video of armed men pointing their machine guns at the hostage. On the tape the man isn't heard speaking, but Al-Jazeera reports he is asking the U.S. government to open a dialogue with the insurgents and that U.S. troops leave Iraq.
News stories in Indiana newspapers featured on the company Web site say the firm devised a system to provide water bottles in Baghdad.
A person who answered the company's phone had no comment when asked about the abduction and the news footage.
Dozen killed by bomb
Also on Wednesday, 12 Iraqi security guards were killed as they worked to defuse a bomb in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, officials said Wednesday.
The fatal bombing just north of Kirkuk struck security forces charged with guarding the infrastructure of that region's oil industry, which has been victimized by saboteurs.
Iraqi security forces and Northern Oil Co. officials said two of the 12 killed were officers in the Oil Guards unit.
Most of Iraq's oil comes from the southern facilities, where exports reach about 1.5 million barrels per day.
But insurgents have often attacked pipelines and plants in the Kurdish-controlled north and oil production numbers in Iraq remain lower than prewar figures.
More bombings, attacks
A car bomb targeted a U.S. Defense Department convoy on the road to the Baghdad airport, a U.S. military spokesman said. He said there were minor injuries, but gave no further details.
Soon afterward, a car bomb wounded three Iraqi civilians in the western Baghdad neighborhood of al-Amiriya.
Also Wednesday, a high-ranking official with Iraq's Interior Ministry was critically wounded when gunmen attacked his car as he drove to work, Iraqi police said.
Col. Naji Hussein and his driver were wounded by small arms fire while driving through the al-Dora district of southeast Baghdad, police said.
Insurgents also targeted U.S. convoys with three bombs in Baghdad, wounding several bystanders.
No Americans were reported killed, a U.S. military spokesman said.
The attacks come a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to Baghdad, praising Iraq for its fledgling democracy and noting improvements in the country's security forces.
From Iraq, Rumsfeld traveled Wednesday to Afghanistan. He arrived in Kandahar to meet with U.S. commanders and forces fighting in the war on terrorism. He also met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (Full story)
Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick made his own surprise visit to Iraq on Wednesday.
Bush addresses soldiers in Texas
President Bush, speaking to cheering soldiers Tuesday at Fort Hood in Texas, said Iraqi forces are making strides in training and are gaining the confidence of the Iraqi people and American forces.
In the past six months, Bush said, "More than 800 [Iraqis] have given their lives in the struggle."
The president said Iraqi forces are becoming more self-reliant and are shouldering greater responsibilities, with the United States and other coalition partners playing more of a support role.
Bush noted the more than 150,000 trained and equipped forces surpass the number of American forces in Iraq for the first time.
Other developments
# A U.S. Army soldier serving with the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, died in combat Tuesday in the Sunni Triangle.The Marines said in a news release that "enemy small-arms fire" killed the soldier during combat operations in Ramadi. The identity of the soldier is "being withheld pending notification of next of kin." The death brings the total of U.S. casualties to 1,548.
# The Iraqi government said Tuesday its forces captured an insider from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime at a farm northeast of the capital. Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud al-Mashadani, a former high-ranking member of Saddam's Baath Party, was among "the main facilitators of many terrorist attacks in Iraq," the government said. The Iraqi government had posted a $200,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
# For the first time since the Vietnam War, a U.S. soldier faces court-martial in the killing of other soldiers during wartime. The trial of Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar -- accused in a March 2003 grenade attack that killed two U.S. officers in Kuwait -- is ongoing. (Full story)
# The new president of Ukraine has signed a decree ordering his country's troops to leave Iraq by year's end, the Russian news agency Interfax reported Wednesday. In signing the decree -- considered a formality -- President Viktor Yushchenko is living up to a promise he made during last year's presidential campaign that he would bring the troops, who once numbered 1,650, home.
# Poland will withdraw troops from Iraq at the end of the year, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said Tuesday, Reuters reported. The U.S. ally has about 1,700 soldiers in south-central Iraq, where it runs a multinational stabilization force. (Full story)
CNN's Kevin Flower, Ayman Mohyeldin, Octavia Nasr and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.