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Filipino, Egyptian hostages freed

Gunmen kill Iraqi council member ; 4 veterinarians die in bomb blast

AGENCIES, Baghdad
A Filipino truck driver held hostage in Iraq was handed over to the United Arab Emirates embassy in Baghdad yesterday and an Iraqi council member running for governor in Basra was killed as he left for work.
"He (the driver) has been handed over and we will hand him over to the Philippine authorities," an Emirates official told Reuters.
Manila ignored criticism from the United States and Iraq's interim
government, which accused it of bowing to terrorists, and completed the withdrawal of its humanitarian contingent of troops Monday in response to demands from the kidnappers.
The Philippine ambassador in Baghdad could not be reached, and a source at the embassy said he had heard nothing.
Militants threatening to behead Angelo de la Cruz had set a July 20 deadline for Philippine troops to leave Iraq.
Kidnappers have seized dozens
of foreigners since April to press demands for foreign troops to leave Iraq, to deter foreigners from working with US forces or to extract ransoms.
Many hostages have been freed, including an Egyptian released Monday, but at least four have been killed. An American and a South Korean were beheaded by a group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, accused by Washington of having links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Egyptian driver Mohammed al-Gharabawi was freed after the Saudi firm he worked for met kidnappers' demands by promising to stop doing work in Iraq.
"In the beginning, in the first few days, I was threatened," Gharabawi said at the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad late on Monday. "It was a real threat to me; they were shouting at me and pushing me with guns."
A group led by Zarqawi seized two Bulgarians earlier this month and sent video footage to Al Jazeera television showing one of them being beheaded. Hopes that the second is alive are fading.
A Turk may also have been taken hostage in Iraq, colleagues said Monday.
Zarqawi, whose group has also claimed responsibility for many of the deadliest bombings in Iraq, is the US military's prime target in the country, with a $25 million price on his head.
VETERINARIANS
Four veterinarians were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb exploded yesterday in the path of their bus near the flashpoint town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, a hospital official said.
The minibus, which was transporting nine veterinary surgeons, hit the bomb in Ghalabia, 20 km west of Baquba, said Ali Ibrahim, the head of the nearby Al-Khalis hospital.
Three of the vets died on the spot and another en route to a hospital in Baquba, Ibrahim said, adding that
two others were in serious condition and a fourth was only slightly hurt.
Faycal Yassin, 23, one of those who survived, said two Iraqi national guard vehicles overtook them just prior to the explosion and may have been the intended target.
Baquba, 60km from Baghdad, is an area renowned for anti-US sentiment and is a hotbed of violence against the new Iraqi security services.
COUNCIL MEMBER
The Iraqi council member running for governor in the southern port city of Basra was killed as he left for work last morning, along with his driver and bodyguard, an Iraqi official said.
Hazim al-Aynachi was pulling out of his driveway when gunmen opened fire on his car. Another person was injured, said council head Abdul Bari Faiyek.
Faiyek blamed the killing on opposition to elections for a local governor which were due to occur Tuesday, but were delayed in response to the shooting.
"Many threats have been directed to the eight council members nominated to the post," Faiyek said, adding that another councilman escaped an assassination attempt on Monday.
The shooting was the latest salvo by insurgents determined to undermine the country's post war reconstruction.
(Reuters, AFP and AP)