One Bright Spot During a Day of Violence, Death

Violence continued to beset Iraq on Saturday, with clashes, insurgent attacks and bombings across the capital and a grisly discovery in the northern city of Mosul. But in a heartening development, a Polish woman who had been abducted in the country three weeks ago suddenly reappeared in her homeland, tired but safe.

The day’s heaviest fighting came in the Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiya, where U.S. and Iraqi forces had raided a Sunni Muslim mosque after Friday afternoon prayers. Insurgents launched a predawn rocket attack on a local police station Saturday morning, sparking a lengthy battle in which U.S. troops deployed helicopters and tanks.

Iraqi national guardsmen also traded fire with insurgents in the western neighborhood of Amiriya, leaving seven attackers dead and seven civilians wounded. In the city center, a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle on Saadoun Street, a major downtown thoroughfare, killing two people.

One U.S. soldier was killed and nine others were wounded in Baghdad, but it was unclear exactly where the deaths and injuries occurred. The military also announced that two Marines were killed in action Friday in Al Anbar province: Lance Cpl. Phillip G. West, 19, of American Canyon, Calif., and Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel, 29, of New York.

In Mosul, where U.S. and Iraqi troops have battled insurgents for control of the country’s third-largest city, U.S. forces found the bodies of nine Iraqi national guardsmen.

All had been shot execution-style, and seven of the bodies had been decapitated, according to news reports.

In Ramadi, which lies west of Fallouja in the Sunni heartland, U.S. troops sealed off entrances to the restive city and helicopters patrolled overhead.

With the conquest of formerly insurgent-controlled Fallouja largely complete, the troops are now expected to sweep through the surrounding towns in search of escaped fighters.

Also on Saturday, former hostage Teresa Borcz-Kalifa appeared alongside Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka at a hastily organized news conference in Warsaw, the capital.

“I’m very happy to announce that Teresa Borcz, abducted in Iraq a few weeks ago, has been released,” the solemn-looking Belka told reporters. “She is sound and healthy.”

Borcz-Kalifa, looking tired but smiling, said her release was “a joyous” moment.

The prime minister would not release any details of how the 54-year-old was freed.

Belka said the effort was carried out by “operatives from different government services.” He said the government was also aided by foreign institutions, which he declined to name.

It was unclear whether Borcz-Kalifa was freed in a raid, or whether a ransom or any government concession secured her release.

After her abduction, the satellite television channel Al Jazeera broadcast two videos of Borcz-Kalifa in which she pleaded for the Polish government to pull out its troops from Iraq.

Poland supported the U.S. war in Iraq and, despite popular opposition, sent 2,400 of its own soldiers. It now commands a 15-nation security force in south-central Iraq. Poland has said it plans to downsize its force after Iraqi elections.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski said last week that any hasty decisions on Iraq would further destabilize the country.

Concerns over Borcz-Kalifa’s life increased after authorities in Fallouja found a mutilated body of a Western woman and the airing of a video showing the apparent execution of a British woman who had been held hostage.

At the news conference, Borcz-Kalifa would not release any details of how she won her freedom, explaining that her eyes were covered with a black scarf throughout the operation.

Borcz-Kalifa recalled her abduction from her apartment in Baghdad on Oct. 28, saying it was “very quick, immediate, very well-organized.”

She said she was kept in a “clean, freshly painted and washed room” and was given enough food and water.

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Times staff writer Khalil reported from Baghdad and special correspondent Kasprzycka from Warsaw. Times wire services were used in compiling this report.