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Attack on patrol kills 5 Iraqi troops
SPECIAL REPORT
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Five Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded Monday when an Iraqi-U.S. joint patrol came under attack south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Three civilians also were wounded, the military said. No U.S. casualties were reported. The attack occurred south of Yusufiya when the patrol struck a roadside bomb and then got hit with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Joint forces responded on the ground and from the air, capturing up to 40 suspected terrorists. The military also said that Iraqi and U.S. soldiers had detained at least 100 suspected terrorists during Operation Muthana Strike, launched Monday. A military statement said the operation targeted suspected terrorist safe houses west of Baghdad International Airport. Also Monday, the Iraqi capital was the scene of violence when a pair of roadside bombs killed three people and wounded four others, police said. The first bomb exploded Monday morning as an Iraqi police convoy passed through southeast Baghdad's al-Zaafaraniya neighborhood. The blast narrowly missed the convoy but killed one civilian and wounded two others. A second bomb later went off in the southwestern al-Amil neighborhood, killing two people and wounding two others. In the northern city of Mosul, a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Party was assassinated Monday, an Iraqi provincial official said. Unknown gunmen shot Jirjis Mohammed Amin as he left a relative's home in Mosul's al-Karama neighborhood, said Kahsro Goran, deputy governor of Nineva province. Separately, gunmen assassinated Iraqi police Capt. Ahmed Mouayyad, one of the Nineva governor's bodyguards, outside his house as he was heading to the governor's office, Goran said. The killing took place at about the same time as the attack on Amin, he said. Two days ago, gunmen killed two sisters who worked with the KDP, Goran said. Egyptian envoy kidnappedEgypt's envoy to Iraq has been kidnapped in Baghdad, according to a source in the Egyptian Embassy there. Ihab al-Sherif was abducted near his home Saturday, the source said. He arrived in Iraq in June to become the first ambassador to represent an Arab country since Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003. Al-Sherif had not formally presented his credentials to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. In July 2004, the Lions of God Brigades in Iraq abducted Momdoh Kotb, Egypt's third-highest ranking diplomat in the country, but released him after less than a week. High-level sources in Baghdad said that Egypt paid ransom to win his release, which Egyptian officials in Cairo and Washington vehemently denied. U.S. and Iraqi officials discourage paying ransom -- or acquiescing to kidnappers' demands -- for fear it will inspire insurgents to use the tactic more frequently. Other developmentsCNN's Cal Perry and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report. 
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