Iraqi insurgents pressed their assault on U.S. forces and their allies Thursday as two Americans and a Briton were kidnapped from their Baghdad house and three Marines were slain, bringing the number of U.S. military deaths in the country this month to at least 52.
The brazen abduction of the employees, who work for a Middle Eastern-based construction company, continued a violent week that has left more than 200 Iraqis dead, and it follows a similar kidnapping of two Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, from their office 10 days ago.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the recent kidnapping, but almost all of the more than 120 seizures of foreigners in Iraq have been carried out by militant groups seeking to drive out U.S. forces, aid workers and foreign companies involved in supporting military and reconstruction efforts.
Most of the abductions have occurred on roadways, but now they have spread to homes and offices, sparking new fears among an international community already feeling besieged. Some companies have pulled out of Iraq, despite the money to be made on reconstruction projects.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad identified the two Americans as Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong. Their ages and hometowns were not released.
The British Embassy confirmed the third man taken was a British citizen but did not identify him.
An Iraqi government official said the three men worked for Gulf Services Co., but it was unclear what positions they have with the company.
After the abduction, police found the corpse of a blond man north of Baghdad, news agencies reported. The body, thought to be that of a Westerner, was not immediately identified.
Eighteen months after U.S. forces invaded Iraq and ousted Saddam Hussein’s regime, great swaths of the nation remain beyond the control of the U.S.-backed government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Sunni Muslim insurgents control vast areas west of Baghdad, while Shiite militias hold sway in the capital and elsewhere. The nation’s security forces are ill-equipped to impose order, despite U.S. efforts.
One of the most contentious areas is Anbar province west of Baghdad, which includes the restive towns of Fallujah and Ramadi. The U.S. military said three Marines died Thursday in separate incidents as the result of enemy fire in the province.
The Pentagon’s count of its military personnel killed in Iraq reached 1,027 Thursday.
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U.S. forces have stepped up their offensive in Anbar province lately. On Thursday and early Friday, they launched four assaults targeting the network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant suspected in a wave of suicide bombings and abductions.
Suspected al-Zarqawi strongholds in Fallujah and the nearby town of Qaryat ar Rufish were bombed, U.S. authorities said.
The Qaryat ar Rufish attack against a “terrorist meeting site” killed about 60 “foreign fighters,” a U.S. statement said. Fallujah General Hospital reported that 14 wounded were being treated, mainly women and children.
If true, the attack would be one of the deadliest against insurgents since the U.S. invasion began. Militia groups have long accused the U.S. military of inflating the number of guerrillas killed in operations.
U.S. forces also launched an offensive in Ramadi, the provincial capital in western Iraq and a Sunni insurgency stronghold. The operation targeted the little-known Daham network, which U.S. officials said has ties to al-Zarqawi.
Thursday’s abduction in Baghdad is suspected of being an inside job involving at least one of the security guards assigned to protect the house, sources said.
Sabah Kadhim, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said “five masked men with weapons” forced their three captives into a waiting mini-van without firing a shot.
The Mansour neighborhood where the abduction took place is an upscale area known for its concentration of foreign embassies and companies.