Iraq Notebook
Beheading is threatened

AL-JAZEERA / AP A man identified as South Korean Kim Sun-il sits in front of his captors in this image taken from an undated but recent video obtained by Al-Jazeera television station yesterday.

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The kidnappers, who identified themselves as belonging to a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, gave South Korea 24 hours to meet its demand or "we will send you the head of this Korean."

"Korean soldiers, please get out of here," the man screamed in English, flailing his arms. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I know that your life is important, but my life is important."

South Korean media identified the hostage as Kim Sun-il, 33, an employee of South Korea's Gana General Trading, a supplier for the U.S. military.

The statement gave Seoul 24 hours from sunset yesterday to meet its demand.

The group identified itself as Monotheism and Jihad; its purported leader, al-Zarqawi, is a Jordanian-born terrorist linked to al-Qaida. Al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the videotaped beheading last month of American businessman Nicholas Berg.

In Seoul today, Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin said South Korea will not withdraw the 600 military medics and engineers it has in the southern city of Nasiriyah and will not change its plans to send 3,000 more soldiers to Iraq.

Roadside bomb kills 2 Iraqis, wounds 11

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Attackers laying in wait for Iraqi troops detonated a roadside bomb on the road leading to Baghdad's airport yesterday, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding 11.

American troops took the Iraqi wounded to a U.S. aid station and waited while they were treated. Iraqi soldiers wept and hugged their U.S. comrades.

U.S. soldiers accompanying the Iraqis on the airport road said the Americans had just passed a traffic circle with the Iraqis behind them when assailants triggered the bomb.
 
"The hardcore terrorists don't care who they kill," said Lt. Col. Tim Ryan, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment. "These guys are bigger targets than we are now."

Town's security turned over to Iraqis

BAQOUBA, Iraq — The U.S. military handed security responsibility back to local leaders in the nearby town of Buhriz yesterday after hammering Sunni Muslim insurgents in three days of clashes that killed 19 militants and one U.S. soldier.

U.S. military officials said the deal calls for American troops to pull back and for Iraqi police to step in and establish security in the town of 40,000, which is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad,

Similar arrangements have been reached in Najaf, Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq where the Americans have stepped aside and allowed Iraqi forces to assume greater security roles after clashes with insurgents. That could become the pattern across much of the country as the U.S.-run coalition hands over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government June 30.

"Our goal here in 10 days will be the full sovereignty here in Iraq," said Col. Dana Pittard, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. "If we cannot trust the police for maintaining control of order, then who can I trust?"

Saddam may be put to death, official says

LONDON — Iraq could execute former leader Saddam Hussein after trying him, the director of the country's war-crimes tribunal system said yesterday.

Salem Chalabi, who is in charge of setting up a special tribunal to try members of the ousted regime, said that once the Iraqi government gains limited sovereignty June 30, it will have the power to end U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer's suspension of the death penalty in Iraq.

"The Iraqi government has to affirmatively take that step to lift the suspension," Chalabi said. "If the suspension imposed by Ambassador Bremer is lifted, then there is the possibility of the death penalty being imposed" on those convicted of murder or rape.

Chalabi said tribunal officials were "negotiating quite intensively with the coalition forces" about taking custody of Saddam and detained members of his regime after the handover of power. He said the prisoners would probably be transferred to Iraqi custody "relatively soon after the transition."

President Bush said last week there are no plans to immediately hand Saddam to the Iraqis, although he repeatedly has said the former Iraqi president will be tried by his countrymen.