American Civilian Abducted in Iraq

Gunmen kidnapped a Lebanese American businessman -- the second U.S. citizen seized this week in Baghdad -- and videotape was shown Wednesday of the beheadings of four members of Iraq’s military.

In a day of violence across Iraq, a U.S. soldier was killed and another was wounded in a roadside bombing 12 miles south of Baghdad, the capital.

Gunmen killed a senior Oil Ministry official, Hussein Fattal, after he left his house Wednesday in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad, police said. Fattal was the general manager of a state-owned company that distributes petroleum byproducts.

In another attack, a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle at a checkpoint near Baghdad’s airport, injuring nine Iraqis.

U.S. jets were in action again late Wednesday over Fallouja, striking insurgent targets in the northeastern and southern parts of the city where American forces are said to be gearing up for a major assault. Residents reported fierce exchanges of fire after midnight on the city’s edge.

Radim Sadeq, an American of Lebanese origin who worked for a mobile phone company, was kidnapped about midnight Tuesday when he answered the door of his home in Baghdad’s upscale Mansour neighborhood, officials said. No group claimed responsibility.

It was the second abduction this week in Mansour, where many foreign firms are based. On Monday, gunmen stormed the two-story compound of a Saudi company, abducting six people -- an unidentified American, a Nepalese, a Filipino and three Iraqis, two of whom were later released. No claim has been made for the kidnappings.

A militant group, the Ansar al Sunna Army, posted a videotape on a website Wednesday showing the beheading of a man who it said was an Iraqi army major captured in the northern city of Mosul.

In another video, aired Wednesday on the satellite television channel Al Jazeera, a previously unknown group calling itself the Brigades of Iraq’s Honorables beheaded three men it identified as Iraqi national guardsmen, accusing them of spying for the Americans. The station did not broadcast the part of the tape showing the killings.

In Jordan, a government spokeswoman said four Jordanian drivers were kidnapped in Iraq and two others were shot at by unknown assailants. The spokeswoman, Asma Khader, gave no details.

In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, residents said U.S. soldiers clashed with gunmen Wednesday in the city center. Four Iraqis were killed and two injured, said Ahmed Jadour of Samarra Hospital.