10 Killed in Iraq, including a US Soldier; One Marine Held Hostage

A US Marine was taken hostage in Iraq on June 21, and the group that kidnapped him is now threatening to kill Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun.

The fascist US pundits who keep intimating that Muslim-Americans or Arab Americans should be under suspicion after 9/11 should be doubly ashamed of themselves, given what Hassoun risked and what he is suffering for this country (he is Lebanese-American).

The Khaleej Times says, ' Meanwhile, at least 10 people - a US soldier, another American, two Iraqi children and six Iraqi National Guardsmen - were killed in separate attacks across Iraq. '

A US military casualty occurred when a C-130 transport plane came under fire and had to return to Baghdad airport. One soldier on board was killed, but the plane was largely unharmed.

Tarek Tablawi of AP reports that on Sunday, guerrillas launched a mortar attack on the party office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Mosul, killing a party member, and injuring nine others. Mosul also saw two drive-by shootings, in which a policeman was killed and a guard at an Iraqi army recruiting center.

Explosions were heard in Fallujah, possibly as a result of a mortar attack on US Marines.

In Baghdad, the Green Zone or American compound took mortar or rocket fire, but no casualties were sustained.

Guerrillas who captured three Turkish hostages threatened to kill them unless Turkey withdraws civlian contractors from Iraq. Turkish PM Erdogan refused. The Turkish hostage situation cast a pall over the NATO meeting in Istanbul, where the Iraq war was enormously unpopular and where Bush is deeply disliked. Some 40,000 Turks protested his visit over the weekend. See below for more on Bush in Istanbul.