U.S. military: 13 insurgents killed in Iraq
Egyptian official 'optimistic' hostages will be released
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 Iraqi soldiers, backed by U.S. forces, kill 13 insurgents.
 Egyptian diplomat in Iraq held hostage.
 More hostages seized as fighting rages in Ramadi and elsewhere.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi National Guard soldiers, supported by U.S. forces, killed 13 insurgents Sunday in a battle northeast of Baghdad, according to the U.S. military.
The insurgents attacked the Iraqi forces outside the town of Buhriz, as the forces provided security for U.S. soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division who were conducting a raid, according to a statement from Maj. Neal O'Brien.
The Iraqi forces pursued the insurgents into the town. During the pursuit, the 1st Infantry Division soldiers provided security for the Iraqi forces, which included providing observation aircraft and artillery fire.
The insurgents "fired mortars indiscriminately into the town," O'Brien said.
Iraqi security forces and the 1st Infantry Division suffered no casualties.
The Iraqi forces found weapons and ammunition, including mortar and artillery rounds, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and mortar tubes and fuses.
Buhriz is near Baqubah, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, a purported statement from militants linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group threatened Australia and Italy, warning Australia the group will "turn your homeland into a bloodbath" unless its approximately 880 troops are withdrawn from Iraq.
To Italy, which has about 2,700 troops in Iraq, the militants warned "you will have columns of car bombs shaking your cities" if the government maintains its military presence in Iraq.
The message was posted on an Islamist Web site, as were previous warnings from militants, and was signed by a group identifying itself as Islamic Unification (Islamic Tawhid), the al Qaeda organization in Europe. (Full story)
Negotiators working to free hostages in Iraq have had no contact with the kidnappers of Egyptian diplomat Momdoh Kotb but are "optimistic about his early release," acting ambassador Karim Sharaf said Sunday.
Kotb, the third-highest official at the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad, was seized Thursday while leaving a mosque to take a walk after evening prayers, Sharaf said.
A videotape of masked militants surrounding Kotb was broadcast Friday on the Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera.
The militants identified themselves as members of the Lion of God Brigades, and said they took him hostage in response to Egypt's offer to help in security matters in Iraq. The group has made no public demands.
Official: Negotiations at sensitive stage
Egypt is also helping to negotiate the release of one of its citizens, a truck driver for a Kuwaiti company, taken hostage with six other truckers from India and Kenya.
Negotiations for the release of the truck drivers are at a sensitive stage, Sharaf said, adding that he was optimistic they would also be released.
The group calling itself The Black Banners is demanding the truckers' employer, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., pay the families of those killed in clashes with U.S. forces in Fallujah, and that all Iraqi prisoners held in American prisons be released, according to a videotape broadcast Friday on Al-Jazeera. KGL is also involved in the hostage negotiations.
Sharaf said the kidnappers have changed their demands over the last couple of days.
"We are dealing with a volatile group that is very sensitive and that is monitoring the media," he said.
On Saturday, the chief of an Iraqi construction firm was kidnapped in Baghdad. So far there has been no public statement from the kidnappers.
Other developments
Two Pakistani nationals working for a Kuwait-based company have gone missing in Iraq, a spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Sunday. They were on their way to Baghdad, the spokesman said. A U.S. soldier died from wounds received in a convoy attack Saturday in the town of Bayji in northern Iraq, according to a U.S. military news release issued Sunday. Another soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb ripped through the military convoy, the release said. Both soldiers were from the 1st Infantry Division. The death brings to 908 the number of U.S. forces killed in the Iraq war -- 674 combat-related deaths, 234 noncombat deaths. 
