U.S. journalist abducted, her translator shot, killed

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen kidnapped a American journalist and killed her Iraqi translator Saturday in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

Maj. Falah Mohamadawi said the translator told police before he died that the abduction took place when he and the journalist were heading to meet Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front, in the Adel section of the city.

The neighborhood is dominated by Sunni Arabs and considered one of toughest in Baghdad.

According to Samir Najim, a guard at al-Dulaimi’s office, three armed men in a red Opel sedan intercepted the journalist’s car and shot the translator before taking her in their car and driving away. The kidnapping took place about 100 yards from al-Dulaimi’s office.

Insurgents have kidnapped more than 250 foreigners in the past two years.

Some of the hostages were killed, while others were released after ransoms were paid or freed after Muslim clerics called on the armed groups to release them.

On Dec. 8, the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed to have killed U.S. electrician Ronald Schulz. Other groups are holding a French engineer and four Christian humanitarian workers – two Canadians, a Briton and an American.

No news has been received about the fate of those men since a group claiming responsibility for their capture imposed a Dec. 10 deadline for their killings.