Iraq Notebook
Mosul, Beiji clashes kill at least 12

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Iraqi security forces, aided by the U.S. Army, regained control of both stations, witnesses said.

Insurgents also set fire to the house of Gov. Duraid Kashmoula, destroying it and damaging his car in northern Mosul.

A gunbattle erupted between insurgents and U.S. troops in the main market in the northern town of Beiji, killing at least six people and wounding 20 others, witnesses said.

The clash followed an attack in Beiji against U.S. soldiers, who responded with tank rounds and missiles, the U.S. military said.

Iraqi doctor says U.S. bombed clinic

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi doctor who worked at a triage center in the middle of Fallujah during the U.S. attack said he was forced to abandon the city when the military bombed the facility.

Dr. Ahmed Ghanim said a U.S. general had pledged that the triage center would not be bombed on two conditions: First, no one with a gun could be in the building, and second, no groups could gather near the doors.

"Of course that was impossible because people came in groups to bring in their injured family and friends," Ghanim said.

He said there was no electricity, no water, no food, no fluids for the patients.

"I was doing amputations for many patients. But I am an orthopedic surgeon; if a patient came to me with an abdominal injury, I could do nothing. We would bring the patient in and we would have to let him die.
 
"We were treating everyone. There were women, children, mujahids [insurgents]. I don't ask someone if they are a fighter before I treat them. I just take care of them."

Late Tuesday, he said, two bombs struck the triage center, killing two or three doctors. After that, he said, he fled the city.

Two Allawi relatives reportedly freed

CAIRO, Egypt — Kidnappers claimed to have released two women relatives of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, two pan-Arab satellite channels reported yesterday. The Iraqi government said it had no knowledge of the release.

Allawi's male cousin, Ghazi Allawi, his wife and their daughter-in-law were kidnapped by gunmen Nov. 9 in western Baghdad. A militant group, Ansar al-Jihad, claimed responsibility and threatened to behead them.

ALSO

Saboteurs set fire yesterday to four oil wells in Iraq's northern fields, setting off successive explosions in Khabbaza, 12 miles northwest of Kirkuk, oil officials said.

More than a dozen insurgents attacked the Polish Embassy in Baghdad with automatic weapons yesterday, and embassy guards returned fire in an exchange that lasted for a half hour, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Warsaw. No one was reported killed or wounded.