Iraq Watch: May 5, 2006

U.S. Soldiers Killed in IED Blast

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three U.S. soldiers were killed Friday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb south of Baghdad in Babil province. The soldiers were assigned to MND-B.

The AP reports the vehicle was struck shortly before noon near the city of Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad.

Also Friday, seven employees of the North Oil Company were abducted after militants ambushed the minibus they were riding in.

Elsewhere, Iraqi authorities discovered five corpses, all shot in the head, in various parts of the capital city Friday. Three more bodies were found north of Baghdad in Khalis according to the Washington Post.

AFP reports that six people were killed and two wounded when gunmen opened fire on a Baghdad liquor store.

Following the fall of Saddam Hussein's secular Baath regime in 2003, stores selling alcoholic beverages have become a frequent target of religious extremists, both Sunni and Shiite, who view the consumption of alcohol as haram, or forbidden.

Meanwhile, the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi video outtakes, released yesterday by the U.S. military, began to be widely broadcast on Iraqi television. The outtakes were captured in a raid last month by U.S. forces near Youssifiyah. The snippets of video show the Jordanian-born militant sporting a pair of American-made New Balance tennis shoes and misfiring an automatic weapon.