Thursday's News

The following was reported from the Arabic News Agency, Al Jazeera, so take it with as many grains of salt as necessary:

...Allawi's warning

On Tuesday, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi reportedly sounded a warning to fighters in Falluja and the neighbouring city of Ramadi to shun violence or face the consequences.

His comments came after hospital sources said nine people, including women and children, were killed in two pre-dawn raids by US warplanes on suspected targets in Falluja on Monday.

US forces also bombed Sadr City in Baghdad late on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, three members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party were killed and two others injured on Tuesday in the Jalawla area, north-east of Baquba city, when unknown assailants opened fire on them.

Ramadi violence

An Iraqi group has said it had kidnapped a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) who it described as a "spy" working as a translator for the US army, according to an Internet statement posted on Wednesday.

"The body was found with a tag attached to it saying he worked for the US Army"

Bilal Dulaimi, police officer

The Army of Ansar al-Sunna, which last month posted a video tape of the apparent beheading of what it said were three KDP members, said in the statement that it had abducted Luqman Husain Muhammad in the western city of Ramadi on 5 October.

"He said he participated in the questioning of jailed Iraqi mujahidin and also in US raids of homes of Muslims in Ramadi," said the statement which was dated Wednesday and carried on a website often used by Islamists.

It was not possible to verify the statement's authenticity.

The KDP is one of two main Kurdish groups represented in Iraq's interim government.

Also in Ramadi, police said they found the bullet-ridden body of an Iraqi working as an interpreter for the US military.

"The body was found with a tag attached to it saying he worked for the US Army," said Bilal Dulaimi, a police officer in the city.

He said the corpse was taken to the main hospital in Ramadi, which has been the scene of frequent clashes between US troops and Iraqi fighters.
Aljazeera + Agencies