The Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, which the United States claims has ties to both Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, abducted a man from a village in northern Iraq on Sunday, bringing to three the number of hostages it has taken in recent days, Kurdish officials said. The latest kidnapping came the day after the group assassinated a minister of the Kurdish parliament in what the authorities describe as an intricately laid trap. Kurdish officials said the killers posed as peace negotiators and lured the minister to a quiet setting, then shot him as he was completing a letter to Ansar ending with the traditional Kurdish sign-off, Live Always. Seventeen other people were shot in the attack, and two men were taken hostage as the gunmen escaped. Full Story
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