U.S., Iraq won’t bow to kidnap demands

Baghdad, Iraq ? With the fate of a British hostage in the hands of a murderous group of Islamic radicals, Iraqi and American officials denied Wednesday that they were about to free a female prisoner whose release the kidnappers have demanded.

Contradicting an announcement from his government in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said no decision was made to free Rihab Rashid Taha or another female scientist accused of playing key roles in Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs.

Allawi rejected suggestions that the Iraqi government was bowing to Tawhid and Jihad, a group linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks across Iraq. The group, which slaughtered two American contractors this week, has threatened to behead a British hostage unless U.S.-led occupation forces release female Iraqi prisoners.

“We have not been negotiating and we will not negotiate with terrorists on the release of hostages,” Allawi told The Associated Press in Washington, where he is to meet today with President Bush. “Really, my heart goes out for the victims of terrorism, and their families, and we are trying to do our best to ensure the release of them.”

Conflicting statements about the female prisoners suggested there might be disagreements within Allawi’s interim government, or possibly between Iraqi and American authorities, on how to proceed in the face of the hostage crises.

Attacks escalate

At the same time, Allawi and the U.S.-led coalition are under increasing pressure to suppress the guerrilla and terrorist attacks that are devastating Iraq.

A car bombing Wednesday in a crowded commercial district killed at least 11 people and wounded more than 60, Iraqi officials and doctors said. Other violence, including clashes between U.S. forces and Shiite militants in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood, left 13 Iraqis dead.

The United States, meanwhile, lost two soldiers in separate incidents in northern Iraq. Four were wounded by a suicide attack in Baghdad.

¢ Two car bombings and a battle between U.S.-led forces and militants in the capital’s sprawling Sadr City district Wednesday claimed more than 25 lives — including that of a U.S. soldier — and injured more than 150 Iraqis.¢ Clashes erupted in the central city of Samarra, where U.S. forces had earlier claimed success against militants waging a 17-month insurgency. At least one child was killed and five people wounded, said police Maj. Raed Saadoun Ahmad.¢ Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, the spiritual leader of Tawhid and Jihad, the group that beheaded the two American hostages, was killed in an airstrike this month, his family and clerics said.¢ Suicide bombers set off two car bombs in Baghdad; one killed six people.¢ Three U.S. soldiers were killed in separate incidents. One died in one of the car bombings; one was killed by a roadside bomb near Tikrit; a third died of wounds following an attack on a patrol in Mosul.¢ Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United Nations and the European Union would help ensure Iraq holds January elections by providing financial and expert support.¢ French prosecutors are investigating whether French Islamic radicals have gone to Iraq to fight alongside militants.¢ Four Army National Guard members from the “Superman” Company A, 1-244th Combat Aviation Battalion out of New Orleans, La., survived the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter soon after takeoff from Tallil Airfield, near An Nasiriyah. The cause of the crash is being investigated, but early indications suggest mechanical failure.

The hostage-takings and beheadings have provided the most disturbing images from the recent spike in violence.

Eugene Armstrong, 52, was killed Monday, and his butchering was videotaped and posted on the Internet. Jack Hensley, 48, like Armstrong an American contractor working for Gulf Services Co. of the United Arab Emirates, was slaughtered Tuesday, and a tape of that killing appeared late Wednesday on the same Islamic Web site.

Armstrong’s remains were found Tuesday in Baghdad, and Hensley’s were found Wednesday.

Now the family of 62-year-old British engineer Kenneth Bigley, who was abducted last week with the two Americans from a Baghdad house, waits to learn his fate.

“We continue to do everything we can to secure Kenneth Bigley’s safe release, but it would be idle to pretend that there’s a great deal of hope,” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in New York, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly session. “We cannot get into a situation, and I believe the family understands this, where we start bargaining with terrorists and kidnappers.”

In a Web statement reiterating its demand that all Iraqi women prisoners be released, the al-Zarqawi group vowed again to kill Bigley, but it did not set a deadline, as it did for Armstrong and Hensley. The group also posted a video showing Bigley begging British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene and save his life.

Women in custody

Al-Zarqawi’s decision to demand the release of Muslim women played into the Iraqi public’s resentment over U.S. detention policies. The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison offended many Iraqis and fueled rumors that U.S. soldiers were sexually abusing Muslim women in jail cells across the country.

The U.S. military says it has only two Iraqi women in custody: Taha, who was dubbed “Dr. Germ” for her role in Iraq’s anthrax program; and biotechnology expert Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, who became known as “Mrs. Anthrax.”

A Justice Ministry official in Baghdad said Taha’s release on bail was in the works for some time and that she could be freed soon. But American officials are determined to prevent any Iraqi prisoner release that could be seen as a concession to the radicals.

“One thing we’ve learned over time is that you can’t negotiate with these kinds of terrorists,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in New York.

Allawi said he had the final decision on any prisoner releases and that no decision had been made.