Iraq renews emergency powers amid high body count

[Barrett808]

Iraq renews emergency powers amid high body count
by Paul Schemm

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The Iraqi government has renewed its emergency powers amid mass kidnappings, dozens of corpses on the streets and the assassination of a high ranking officer in the intelligence service.

Colonel Faris Khalil of Iraqi intelligence was driving along in civilian clothes and an unmarked car on a Baghdad highway Monday, when gunmen roared up next to him and shot him dead, said the interior ministry.

The capital's dire security situation was further highlighted by a mass kidnapping carried out by gunmen dressed in military-style fatigues -- the second in as many days.

Of the two dozen people snatched in Sunday's mass kidnapping, 10 of them turned up dead in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Chir, part of the 50 corpses found by police.

The British and US governments also announced the deaths of three US marines and a British soldier, as violence continued across the country.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061002/ts_afp/iraq

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