An extremist group, the Islamic Army of Iraq, posted a video on a Web site yesterday that showed an unidentified man being shot in the back of the head, and the group claimed the killing was of US adviser Ronald Allen Schulz.
The video did not show the face of the victim, however, and it was impossible to identify him conclusively. The victim was kneeling with his back to the camera, with his hands tied behind his back and blindfolded with an Arab headdress when he was shot.
In a separate piece of film, shown on a split screen as the killing was aired, the extremist group also showed a picture of Schulz alive. The group had aired the same footage of Schulz alive when he was first taken hostage earlier this month.
PHOTO: AP
In an earlier Internet posting last week, the group had claimed it killed Schulz, and then later said it would show the killing.
Schulz, a civilian contractor, has been identified by the extremist group as a security consultant for the Iraqi Housing Ministry, although neighbors and family from Alaska, where he lives, say he is an industrial electrician who has worked on contracts around the world.
Schulz, a native of North Dakota, served in the Marine Corps from 1984 to 1991. He moved to Alaska six years ago, and friends and family say he is divorced.
The videotaped killing showed the man being shot as he kneeled in an open, empty area of dirt. The video also showed Schulz's identity card.
Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb exploded outside a children's hospital in western Baghdad yesterday, killing at least two people and wounding 11, including seven policemen, officials said.
Police believe the bomb had been targeting a passing convoy carrying a police colonel, who was among the injured.
In western Baghdad, gunmen attacked the convoy of the city's Deputy Governor Ziad Tariq, killing three civilians and wounding three of Tariq's bodyguards, Baghdad police said. Tariq was not injured.
A string of violent attacks, including shootings and bombings, began Saturday night, shattering the relative calm since Iraq's parliamentary election last week.
In a speech on Sunday, US President George W. Bush praised the vote and warned against a pullout of US forces.
Hours before Bush spoke, US Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Baghdad, saying the election's strong turnout had brought Iraq closer to taking control of its own security. But Cheney also cautioned against a rapid US withdrawal.
Bush said last week's voting would not end violence in Iraq but "means that America has an ally of growing strength in the fight against terror."
He warned that a US troop pullout would "signal to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its word."
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although