Iraq Notebook
U.S. finds hostage sites in Fallujah

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FALLUJAH, Iraq — U.S. troops have found close to 20 "atrocity sites" in Fallujah used by insurgents to imprison, torture and kill hostages, a U.S. military officer said yesterday.

Marine Maj. Jim West said in addition to weapons caches, troops clearing the city after a major U.S.-led offensive had found rooms containing knives and black hoods, "many of them blood-covered."

Briefing reporters at a base outside Fallujah, West said one room had "handprints on the walls and along the sides of the walls ... There was blood covering the entire wall and along the floorboard area."

He said troops had found signs of "torture, murder, very gruesome sights."

"We found numerous houses where people were just chained to a wall for extended periods of time," West said.

At least three killed in bus shooting

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. troops opened fire on a bus carrying Iraqi civilians in Ramadi on Saturday, killing at least three people in an incident the U.S. military described as self-defense.

A U.S. military statement on the bus shooting said the vehicle swerved toward Marines at a checkpoint and the driver "ignored a verbal warning and several warning shots."

The Marines opened fire "to protect themselves and the integrity of the checkpoint," the statement said.

Although the military said three bus passengers were killed, Ramadi police chief Brigadier Jasim al-Dulaimi said seven died.
 
Eight killed, 18 wounded in Ramadi ambush

RAMADI, Iraq — Insurgents launched a deadly ambush yesterday in the Sunni city of Ramadi, killing eight Iraqi national guardsmen and injuring 18 others, police said.

The Iraqi forces were on patrol in the city center when gunmen opened fire.

ALSO

Major economic powers agreed yesterday to write off more than $31 billion in debt for Iraq in a deal that boosted U.S. efforts to help put the Iraqi economy back on its feet. Iraq owes another $80 billion to various Arab governments.

Kidnappers have freed the cousin of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, it was announced yesterday. Ghazi Allawi, 75, and his wife and daughter-in-law were seized Nov. 9 by a previously unknown that demanded the United States call off its attack on Fallujah. The two women were released a week ago.

U.S. soldiers in Mosul discovered two more bodies yesterday, including that of an Iraqi army soldier, near a site where the bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers were found a day earlier, the military said. All nine had been shot in the head.