3 Beheaded Bodies Found in the North

The decapitated bodies of three men were found north of Baghdad on Wednesday amid fresh clashes in the rebellious Sunni Triangle.

An Iraqi national guard patrol reportedly found the bodies beside a road near the town of Dujayl, about 40 miles north of the capital and halfway to the town of Samarra. Reuters news agency reported that the bodies were wrapped in nylon bags. The victims’ severed heads were strapped to their backs.

Col. Adnan Abdel Rahman, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, confirmed the discovery of the bodies but provided no information beyond saying that one corpse bore several tattoos. Reuters quoted U.S. military sources as suggesting that the dead men were Arabs. Arabs rarely sport tattoos.

The northern town of Samarra has been a center of insurgent activity, and a virtual “no-go” zone for U.S. troops. This week, a group in Samarra claimed to have kidnapped two Australians and two East Asians. But no proof of the capture has been provided, and the Australian government said Wednesday that all of its citizens in Iraq were accounted for.

The group, calling itself the Iraqi Islamic Secret Army, said Monday that the hostages would be killed unless Prime Minister John Howard withdrew Australia’s 850 troops from Iraq within 24 hours.

This morning, gunmen reportedly kidnapped three Britons from a Baghdad home. Wire services and the Al Arabiya news channel quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying the trio, believed to be civilians, were taken without a fight from a home in the upscale Mansour neighborhood.

The British Embassy in Baghdad reported no knowledge of the incident, and a pair of Mansour residents, contacted by telephone, were unaware of any kidnapping.

Dozens of Iraqis and foreigners have been abducted in the last several months -- many of them truck drivers from Turkey, Jordan and Egypt. In many cases, the kidnappers have demanded a withdrawal from Iraq by either the hostages’ employer or their government.

The Australian government spent two days attempting to contact its citizens known to be in Iraq, but Foreign Minister Alexander Downer acknowledged that some Australians could have entered Iraq without registering their presence.

“Every Australian we know about has been accounted for,” a spokesman for the Australian Foreign Ministry told Reuters.

The alleged kidnapping comes at a critical time: Howard’s government is facing an Oct. 9 election in which Australia’s participation in the U.S.-led coalition here has become a key issue. The opposition Labor Party has promised to bring the troops home by Christmas if it wins.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a car bomb at a national guard post in the town of Suwayrah, south of Baghdad, killed two people and wounded at least 10.

Also, the U.S. military announced the death of a Marine in Al Anbar province -- a center of insurgency west of the capital. U.S. and Iraqi forces engaged in deadly clashes with insurgents in the province for the third time in four days. The Health Ministry said 12 Iraqis, including two women, were killed and 16 were wounded in the province -- although no details were given.

The province includes insurgent strongholds in the towns of Ramadi and Fallouja. The latter is essentially run by insurgents and conservative Sunni Muslim clerics.

U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Slavonic said the flurry of casualties in Al Anbar resulted from increased insurgent activity.

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Times wire services were used in compiling this report.