US hostage said killed in Iraq, 30 dead in bombing

BAGHDAD - An Islamic insurgent group said today it had killed a US hostage who, if the claim is confirmed, would be the first foreign hostage killed in Iraq for four months and the first American in more than a year.

The reported killing came after a suicide bomber killed 30 people in an attack on a crowded bus in central Baghdad, the latest chapter in Iraq's bloody insurgency just a week before Iraqis vote in parliamentary elections.

A statement posted on a website often used by insurgents said the Islamic Army in Iraq killed the security consultant, identified as Ronald Schulz, because the US government had not met its demands, which included freeing all Iraqi prisoners.

"War criminal (US President George W) Bush continues with his arrogance and no one has any value unless they serve his criminal interests, therefore the American security adviser pig at the Housing Ministry has been killed," the statement said.

The statement's authenticity could not be verified and no pictures or video accompanied the statement.

If the report is confirmed, Schulz would be the first foreign hostage killed in Iraq since late July, when two Algerians were executed by their captors.

Before that, a Japanese hostage was killed in May this year and an Italian hostage in December last year. The last American hostage to die was Jack Hensley, in September 2004.

An Iraqi militant group calling itself Swords of Truth is holding four Western Christian aid workers, including New Zealand resident Harmeet Singh, and has said it will kill them if Iraqi prisoners are not freed by Saturday, Al Jazeera television reported.

Britain again called for the release of the hostages - 32-year-old New Zealand resident and Canadian citizen Harmeet Singh, 74-year-old Briton Norman Kember, American Tom Fox, 54, and Canadian James Loney, 41 - but Washington and London have said they will not yield to the demands.

The reported killing came as Iraqi security forces were braced for a spike in violence ahead of next Thursday's election.

A suicide bomber killed 30 people and wounded at least 25 on a Baghdad bus earlier, taking the death toll from suicide attacks in the Iraqi capital to 66 in just three days, after a relative lull in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, suicide bombers breached security at Baghdad's police academy and killed 36 police officers and cadets.

Police said Thursday's bomber boarded a crowded bus as it was about to leave a bus station in central Baghdad for the southern Shi'ite city of Nassiriya and blew himself up.

Firefighters pulled charred bodies from the wrecked bus and loaded them into waiting ambulances as police tried to restore order around the site of the blast.

In August, the same bus station was hit by three car bombs, one of which tore through a bus destined for Basra, also in the predominantly Shi'ite south.

Thursday's bombing was the latest in a seemingly relentless insurgency led by Sunni Arabs, once dominant under Saddam Hussein, and foreign fighters against the Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government and its US backers.

Growing frustration over the violence and little improvement in the quality of life for Iraqis loom as the main threats to the ruling United Iraqi Alliance in next week's election.

The Alliance, tacitly backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric, includes Iraq's two most powerful religious Shi'ite parties.

It swept to power with more than half the seats in parliament in January's interim polls on hopes a democratically elected government would usher in a semblance of stability and revive a crumbling economy.

"This government has been a loser throughout the year. It didn't do anything for the people. Instead things are even worse now," said Inas, a freelance translator in Baghdad.

Security is being significantly tightened ahead of the vote. The US military warned more attacks were likely from Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq.

"We are not complacent. The insurgency wants to disrupt the democratic process," Major General Rick Lynch, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq, told Reuters.

For much of this week, Iraqis have been riveted by the televised trial of Saddam on charges of crimes against humanity.

The trial was adjourned for two weeks on Wednesday after three highly charged sessions this week which culminated in the former president boycotting the US-funded court after telling judges to "go to hell" over his treatment in detention.

Saddam's half-brother and co-accused, Barzan al-Tikriti, has also complained of ill-treatment in detention, ranging from inadequate food and shelter to poor quality cigarettes.

"We have indeed looked to see about these allegations and both those detainees have been properly treated," Lynch said.

Thousands of civilians have been kidnapped in Iraq since the fall of Saddam, including more than 200 foreigners.

Some foreigners were seized by criminal gangs seeking ransom but insurgents also used them to pressure their governments to withdraw their armies from Iraq.

Many hostages have been released, but around 50 have been killed, some by grisly beheadings broadcast on the internet.

- REUTERS