Murders Iraq

An Iraqi suspect who shot his way into a United Nations building in Baghdad said he wanted an end to the international embargo against his country. He denied shooting the two people killed during his takeover. Two Food and Agriculture Organization staffers were killed and six people were seriously wounded, said Amir A. Khalil, director of FAO operations in Baghdad. In addition, a U.N. worker was hurt trying to jump from a window, Khalil said.

A Marine has been charged with a military count of premeditated murder for shooting two Iraqis during a search for an enemy hide-out, and faces a possible death sentence if found guilty, his lawyer said Thursday. Second Lt. Ilario G. Pantano, 33, is accused of "numerous violations" of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Marine Corps said. An Article 32 hearing, the military court equivalent of grand jury proceedings, will be held but no date has been set. Spokesman Maj.

Iran charged that Iraq killed 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in poison gas attacks while trying to blunt an Iranian offensive in northeastern Iraq. Many of the Kurds have been rebelling against Baghdad for years, and Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency said the poison gas was used "to prevent the people from joining Iranian combatants."

An Iraqi suspect who shot his way into a United Nations building in Baghdad said he wanted an end to the international embargo against his country. He denied shooting the two people killed during his takeover. Two Food and Agriculture Organization staffers were killed and six people were seriously wounded, said Amir A. Khalil, director of FAO operations in Baghdad. In addition, a U.N. worker was hurt trying to jump from a window, Khalil said.

In a rare and illuminating glimpse into the machinations of one of the Middle East's most powerful personal dynasties, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday ordered his eldest son to stand trial for clubbing to death a presidential aide. Hussein disclosed that his 24-year-old son, Odai, had attempted suicide three times since the killing of the aide, Kamel Hanno Jajjo. According to Baghdad Radio, the killing took place Oct.

Two defector sons-in-law of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were killed by clan members who stormed their residence Friday--three days after their return from exile and a day after their wives divorced them--according to the Iraqi News Agency. Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel Majid and his brother Saddam Kamel Majid had vowed to topple the Iraqi leader during their six-month stay in Jordan.

The slaying of Iraq's highest-ranking Shiite Muslim cleric by unidentified gunmen ignited anti-government riots in Baghdad and several other Iraqi cities Saturday, according to opposition spokesmen whose reports were partially corroborated by Western journalists in Baghdad. Iraq's government, however, denied that any clashes had taken place and denounced the accounts of unrest as "baseless."

The slaying of a U.N. guard in northern Iraq fits into a pattern of attacks on aid agencies that seems to be part of President Saddam Hussein's trial of strength with the international coalition lined up against him, diplomats, relief workers and Kurdish groups say. The U.N. guard, a Fijian soldier, was shot to death while he slept in the city of Dohuk, 210 miles north of Baghdad.

Iraqi soldiers shot to death a Harvard-educated German photographer for Newsweek magazine after finding him hiding in a house with a Kurdish rebel, two of his freed colleagues said Wednesday. American Frank Smyth, 29, and Frenchman Alain Buu, 30, who drove to freedom in Jordan after being held in Iraq for 18 days, said Gad Gross, 26, a German-Romanian working for Newsweek, was killed March 29 in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk.

British newspapers reported that a Turkish guide has admitted killing two British Broadcasting Corp. journalists whose bodies were found in May in northeastern Iraq. But the reports said that the Turk, Hashim Ciftci, had no information about the third member of the BBC television crew, who remains missing. The two victims were BBC cameraman Nick Della Casa and his brother-in-law, soundman Charles Maxwell.

Iraq on Tuesday denied reports of Shiite unrest in the south of the country after the killing last week of a prominent cleric and said it suspected the United States of having a hand in the slaying. Officials in Nasiriyah denied there was unrest in the mainly Shiite southern region where exiled Iraqi opposition groups said protests had erupted after the assassination of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq Sadr on Friday.

Iraqi security forces fought for the third day Monday to quell demonstrations ignited by the killing of a senior Shiite Muslim cleric, opposition spokesmen said, and some reports indicated scores of people dead and more than 700 arrested.

The slaying of Iraq's highest-ranking Shiite Muslim cleric by unidentified gunmen ignited anti-government riots in Baghdad and several other Iraqi cities Saturday, according to opposition spokesmen whose reports were partially corroborated by Western journalists in Baghdad. Iraq's government, however, denied that any clashes had taken place and denounced the accounts of unrest as "baseless."

The speedy elimination of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law after Iraq's most famous defector was lured back to Baghdad has proved once again the ruthlessness of the country's ironfisted leader and shown that his grip on power is now more secure than ever five years after the Persian Gulf War, analysts said Saturday.

Two defector sons-in-law of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were killed by clan members who stormed their residence Friday--three days after their return from exile and a day after their wives divorced them--according to the Iraqi News Agency. Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel Majid and his brother Saddam Kamel Majid had vowed to topple the Iraqi leader during their six-month stay in Jordan.

The slaying of a U.N. guard in northern Iraq fits into a pattern of attacks on aid agencies that seems to be part of President Saddam Hussein's trial of strength with the international coalition lined up against him, diplomats, relief workers and Kurdish groups say. The U.N. guard, a Fijian soldier, was shot to death while he slept in the city of Dohuk, 210 miles north of Baghdad.

British newspapers reported that a Turkish guide has admitted killing two British Broadcasting Corp. journalists whose bodies were found in May in northeastern Iraq. But the reports said that the Turk, Hashim Ciftci, had no information about the third member of the BBC television crew, who remains missing. The two victims were BBC cameraman Nick Della Casa and his brother-in-law, soundman Charles Maxwell.