33 Iraqis, One Marine Killed Across Nation

At least 33 Iraqis and a U.S. Marine were killed in a string of attacks across Iraq, officials said Saturday.

The Marine was killed during “security and stability operations” in Babil province south of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. About 1,440 U.S. service members have died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

A roadside bomb killed four Iraqi national guardsmen in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.

Gunmen stormed a police station in the northern city of Mosul, killing five officers, police said.

Elsewhere, insurgents assassinated Abbas Hassan Waheed, a member of the Baghdad City Council, and a member of Iraq’s intelligence service in separate drive-by shootings.

Bombs and clashes killed seven Iraqis in Samarra and Tall Afar, north of Baghdad, and in Ramadi, to the west.

Eight bodies were found Saturday in Al Anbar province -- five in Ramadi and three in the town of Baghdadi -- and residents said they were believed to be Iraqis who had worked for the Americans or Iraqi security services.

Extremist Ansar al Sunna guerrillas posted a video on an Islamist website Saturday showing seven people being shot. The group said the seven were Iraqi national guardsmen captured two days ago in an ambush west of Baghdad.

Amid the violence, police questioned the driver and the interpreter of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was seized Friday by gunmen near Baghdad University. But police said the two were not suspects.

A friend said she had received a call Saturday from Sgrena’s telephone, but it was unclear who was on the other end.

Barbara Schiavulli, a correspondent for Italian radio news agency GRT, saw Sgrena’s number appear on her telephone screen, but when she answered she heard only Arab music and no one spoke, an editor at GRT in Rome said.

“The call lasted only a short moment and then the line was cut off. Barbara tried to call back but she couldn’t get through,” Simona D’Alessio told Reuters.

Her father, Franco, spoke on Italian television Saturday to plead for her release. “My daughter was always against the war and for peace,” he said, tears in his eyes.

A little-known Iraqi group, the Islamic Jihad Organization, claimed that it had taken Sgrena hostage and demanded that Italy remove its troops from Iraq, but it did not make a specific threat against her. It was not possible to verify the statement, and Italian officials said they would not withdraw.

A separate abduction was resolved. The brother of Mosul’s police chief was kidnapped Saturday, police said, three days after the official, Gen. Mohammed Ahmed Jubouri, threatened to destroy rebel sanctuaries if insurgents did not surrender their weapons within two weeks. Jubouri said late Saturday that his brother had been freed in a raid that netted nine suspects.