American Aid Worker Killed in Baghdad

[sabra]

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/824/American_Aid_Worker_Killed_in_Baghdad

American Aid Worker Killed in Baghdad
Insurgents Also Slay Three Security Contractors
Posted 0 hr. 13 min. ago

CNN and FoxNews are reporting that a female American aid worker and her three security contractors were attacked and killed in Baghdad today. Initial reports are sketchy, but this post will be updated as more details are released.

*update

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244141,00.html

4 Foreign Workers, American Woman Included, Killed in Ambush, Group Says

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Four foreign workers, including an American woman, were killed Wednesday in an ambush in Baghdad, a U.S. democracy group reported.

The report came the same day that a homicide car bomb struck a market in the Shiite district of Sadr City and police said 17 people died, a day after a blast targeting university students killed 70 in what appeared to be a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence against Shiites.

The latest explosion occurred at 3:55 p.m. near the outdoor Mired market, one of the neighborhood's most popular commercial centers, and also injured 33 people, police said. The force of the blast shattered the windows of nearby stores and restaurants.

[Eugene]

1. Some more details from BBC News...

Last Updated: Wednesday, 17 January 2007, 19:55 GMT

Fresh wave of violence hits Iraq

-snip-

In other developments:

* Three foreigners - an American, a Hungarian and a Croatian
   - as well as an Iraqi working for US non-governmental
   organisation the National Democratic Institute were killed
   when their convoy was ambushed in Baghdad, the NDI
   announced

-snip-

Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6270583.stm

[TexasLawyer]

2. American aid worker dies in Iraq ambush

American aid worker dies in Iraq ambush
By Associated Press
Thursday, January 18, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad shot up a convoy of nonprofit agency workers in an ambush that took the lives of an American woman and three bodyguards, while a suicide car bomber killed 17 Shiites at a teeming Sadr City market yesterday.

The attack on the marketplace came one day after car bombings killed scores of university students just two miles away, indicating that al-Qaeda-linked fighters are bent on a surge of bloodshed as U.S. and Iraqi forces gear up for a fresh neighborhood-by-neighborhood security sweep through the capital.

Although nobody claimed responsibility for either day’s car bombings, such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni militants, who appear to be taking advantage of a waiting period before the security crackdown to step up attacks on Shiites. There had been a relative lull in Baghdad violence since the first of the year.

An Iraqi army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the attack on the Western convoy took place in Yarmouk, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad.

<snip>

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=177740

[Eugene]

3. AP: Insurgents in Iraq claim convoy attack

Insurgents in Iraq claim convoy attack

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer

19 minutes ago

CAIRO, Egypt - An al-Qaida-linked coalition of Iraqi Sunni insurgents claimed
responsibility Thursday for an attack on a convoy of a Western democracy
institute that killed an American woman along with three security contractors
in Baghdad.

Wednesday's attack on the convoy of the National Democratic Institute took
place in Yarmouk, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad.

"Praise be to God, in an attack with light and medium weapons and RPG's in the
Yarmouk area in Baghdad on Jan. 17, two SUVs belonging to the Zionist Mossad
were destroyed and a third one was severely damaged," said a statement posted
Thursday on an Islamic Web site.

The statement was signed by the spokesman of the "Islamic state in Iraq," the
so-called Islamic government that al-Qaida in Iraq and several other Iraqi Sunni
Arab insurgent groups declared earlier last year. The statement's authenticity
could not be independently confirmed. It was posted on a Web forum where Sunni
insurgents often release messages.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_convoy_claim