49 Iraqi troops executed, US diplomat killed

Guerrillas killed 49 unarmed Iraqi Army recruits in one of the bloodiest attacks on Iraq8217;s fledgling security forces, while in other at...

Guerrillas killed 49 unarmed Iraqi Army recruits in one of the bloodiest attacks on Iraq8217;s fledgling security forces, while in other attacks on Sunday, a US diplomat and a Bulgarian soldier also died.

Police said guerrillas disguised as police had set up a checkpoint on a road northeast of Baghdad and stopped three minibuses carrying the recruits, forcing them to leave the vehicles and lie face-down on the tarmac before shooting them.

A dozen recruits tried to flee but were also shot.

The bodies, in torn and bloodstained civilian clothes, were taken in the back of trucks to a National Guard base in the town of Mandali, near the Iranian border, where they were laid out in rows. Some bystanders wept. The attack was another blow to the US-backed interim government8217;s efforts to build up Iraqi security forces to tackle a raging insurgency along with US-led forces.

8216;8216;They were all executed, we found them executed,8217;8217; said Interior Ministry spokesman Adnan Abdul-Rahman. The recruits, based at Kirkush, some 90 km northeast of Baghdad, had been heading for home leave when they were ambushed late on Saturday.

	CIA took Iraqi detainees out of Iraq: Post

			8226; WASHINGTON: US intelligence officials have transferred detainees out of Iraq for interrogation, a move that experts say violates international law, The Washington Post reported in its Sunday edition. The CIA has invoked a confidential memo written by the Justice Department to justify secretly transferring as many as a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months, the Post said. The CIA has hidden the detainees from the International Red Cross and other authorities, the Post said, citing an unnamed intelligence official. CIA and Justice Department declined to comment, but a White House official disputed the notion that the Justice Department8217;s interpretation of Geneva Convention was unusual. 8212;Reuters

A US Embassy spokesman said a diplomatic security officer was killed by a mortar attack on Camp Victory, a sprawling US military headquarters near Baghdad8217;s international airport.

8216;8216;I mourn the loss of one of our own today in Baghdad. Assistant Regional Security Officer Ed Seitz was a brave American, dedicated to his country,8217;8217; US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a statement. Seitz was the first American diplomat known to have been killed in Iraq since last year8217;s US-led invasion.

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A Bulgarian soldier serving with US-led multinational forces was killed and three others were wounded when a car bomb exploded near their military convoy in the southern city of Karbala, government and military officials said.

Gunmen shot dead a Turkish truck driver in northern Iraq, police said, a day after two other truckers from Turkey were killed near the city of Mosul.

US warplanes pounded targets in rebel-held Falluja, the toughest guerrilla stronghold, on Sunday, killing five people, witnesses said. Hospital officials said the dead were civilians.

The US military, which blames guerrilla attacks on Saddam Hussein supporters and foreign Islamic militants, said it had destroyed a known enemy command and control post in northern Falluja, some 50 km West of Baghdad.

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A powerful group of Sunni clerics threatened to call a boycott of Iraq8217;s planned elections in January if US forces launch a widely expected full-scale assault on Falluja. 8212;Reuters