Iraq counter-insurgency chief gunned down

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2005

BAGHDAD (AFP) — An insurgent killer squad shot dead the commander of Iraq's new counter-insurgency headquarters as he drove to work in Baghdad, as US and Iraqi troops conducted a massive sweep for insurgents.

Suicide bombers attacked a US base in central Iraq and a town hall in the north of the country, killing five people, in the latest violence to mar the country's transition.

Three Romanian journalists, released by hostage-takers after two months of captivity, flew home as another insurgent group, led by Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed to have executed an Iraqi-American businessman kidnapped four days previously in the capital.

Five US soldiers were killed in Iraq on Sunday, the US military said Monday, including three in attacks...