Four Americans and an Egyptian hostage killed in Iraq

The U.S. military reported that four of its soldiers were killed Saturday in separate attacks in the Iraqi capital, five days ahead of the country’s crucial elections, the U.S. occupation authorities claim will help put an end to the bloodshed and turmoil in the country.

"They were at a traffic control point, when they took fire from one rebel in a vehicle," said U.S. military spokesman Sergeant David Abrams.

Two of the four American soldiers were killed by small-arms fire southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said in a statement. The other two died in a roadside attack in the Azamiyah neighborhood and small arms fire north of the city, the command added.

11 other American troops were reportedly wounded yesterday in a car bombing in the Abu Ghraib district in the capital.

According to the last update on the Pentagon website Thursday, 2,138 U.S. troops have died since the OCCUPATION began on the 20th of March 2003, the AFP wrote.

Meanwhile kidnappers of four Western peace activists set as a deadline for killing the hostages if the U.S. and Iraqi authorities didn’t meet their demands and release all prisoners.

The Interior Ministry asserted that the kidnappers made no contact with Iraqi authorities, adding it had received no information about the hostages by late Saturday morning, a spokesman said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

A deadline had been set for killing Norman Kember, 74, of London; Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va.; and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, all members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, who were kidnapped two weeks ago.

Elizabeth Colton, an American Embassy spokeswoman in IRAQ, said that the "U.S. government is willing to listen to anyone on such matters."

Muslims plead for the hostages’ release

During Friday prayers, the Sunni Arab clerics pleaded for the hostages' release; hailing their humanitarian effort in the country and their stance against the illegal U.S. war on Iraq.

Addressing worshippers in Baghdad's Sunni stronghold Azamiyah, cleric Ahmed Hassan Taha said:

"We ask those who have authority and power to do their best to release the four European people who work in Christian peace organization". "In fact, those activists were the first who condemned the war on IRAQ."

Outside the mosque, the city residents gathered holding banners calling for the four Westerners’ release.

"The people of Azamiyah will not forget the honest positions of the peacemakers," read one banner.

"We demand the release of the abducted peacemakers."

Also Canadian Islamic Congress to IRAQsent an envoy to try to secure the activists' release.

Another two Western hostages, a French aid worker and a German citizen are being held by kidnappers.

Saturday news reports provided no word on the fate of an American hostage, Ronald Allen Schulz, after a statement in posted on an internet site claimed his abductors had killed him.

Also in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, the police discovered the body of Ibrahim Sayed Hilali, an Egyptian engineer who was reportedly kidnapped in the same area by a group of unidentified gunmen.

Meanwhile, a convoy carrying Adnan al-Zurufi, the former governor of Najaf, one of the most volatile regions of IRAQ, was hit by a roadside bomb- the three of al-Zurufi’s bodyguards were wounded, Najaf police Capt. Hadi Najim said.

In Mosul, two Iraqi civilians were killed when a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military patrol exploded, wounding a third civilian.

In the past week alone, more than 100 IRAQI CIVILIANS, security and police forces have been killed in violence, amid a kidnapping crisis and growing panic over the fate of seven Western hostages seized in Iraq in the past two weeks.