Coalition Forces Free Iraqi Kidnap Victims
Gunmen kidnapped 10 young men from mostly Sunni Arab villages in northern Iraq on Thursday, but U.S. and Iraqi forces saved seven of them, police said. Three American soldiers were killed in separate attacks south of the capital. In another development, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, ordered all Shiite mosques to close for three days in a town in southern Iraq where a local Sunni Arab leader was killed. The kidnapping drama occurred in two villages near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Full Story