14 Kidnapped Iraqi Policemen Found Slain

This picture posted on a Web Site on Friday, March 2, 2007, claims to shows a gunman guarding blindfolded men at an undisclosed time and location in Iraq. An al-Qaida-linked Sunni group claimed Friday that it had kidnapped 18 government workers and soldiers in retaliation for the alleged rape of a Sunni woman by members of the Shiite-dominated police force. Hours later, the government said the bodies of 14 security officers had been found. The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni group linked to al-Qaida, posted a statement on the Internet earlier Friday saying 18 men were kidnapped in retaliation for the alleged rape along with nine pictures showing up to 18 men. (AP Photo) (AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The bodies of 14 policemen were found Friday northeast of Baghdad after an al-Qaida-affilated Sunni group said it abducted members of a government security force in retaliation for the rape of a Sunni woman by members of the Shiite-dominated police.

The brutal killing occurred in one of the provinces surrounding Baghdad, where violence remains high despite a sharp drop in bombings and sectarian killings in the capital since the start of the U.S.-led security crackdown last month.

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the bodies were discovered Friday afternoon in Diyala province. The policemen were kidnapped Thursday on their way to their homes in Diyala for leave, he said.

Earlier Friday, the Islamic State of Iraq said in a Web statement that it seized 18 Interior Ministry employees in Diyala in retaliation for "the crimes carried out ... against the Sunnis," including the alleged rape last month of a Sunni woman by policemen in Baghdad.

In a second statement, the group announced that its "court" had ordered the "execution" of the men and that a video depicting their deaths would be posted later, according to the SITE Institute, which monitors extremist Web sites.

Photos accompanied the claim, showing up to 18 blindfolded men, seven of them wearing Iraqi military uniforms. All had their hands tied behind their backs.

But Khalaf cast doubt on whether the 14 slain policemen were the same men shown on the Web site photos.

"We found the 14 policemen's bodies, but they are not those who are in the fabricated images on the Web site," he told The Associated Press. "The Diyala police told us that they don't know who those people shown on the Web site were."

Nevertheless, he blamed al-Qaida for the killings and said Iraqi authorities would "chase those who assassinated these unarmed people."

Also Friday, two U.S. soldiers and an interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad as they were trying to clear a highway of explosives.

The military also announced that a U.S. Marine was killed two days before in combat in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent area west of the capital.

Police in the Anbar capital of Ramadi said gunmen shot dead two members of a local soccer club practicing in a public field.