Iraq Watch: August 10, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military announced the deaths of five service members on Wednesday including four who were killed late Tuesday night when their patrol came under attack near the city of Beiji, located 155 miles north of Baghdad. Six other Task Force Liberty soldiers were injured in the incident which occurred at 11:30 p.m.

The attack was claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq, the terrorist group led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A fifth soldier was killed on Tuesday by small-arms fire near Habaniyah, located about 50 miles west of Baghdad.

Five other American soldiers were wounded on Wednesday in the western Ghazaliyah neighborhood of Baghdad in a car bombing. At least seven Iraqis, including three police, were killed in the explosion.

Also in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Khudayer Abbas, a chief officer in the Interior Ministry, was kidnapped by gunmen. The brazen attack, which had no immediate claim of responsibilty, occurred near Andalus Square.

Elsewhere, police Capt. Mahmoud Hassan was gunned down in the capital's western Bayaa district on Wednesday.

Late Wednesday, an Iraqi army checkpoint 12 miles south of Beiji came under insurgent attack leaving at least five Iraqi soldiers dead and two more wounded according to the AP.