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Iraq

American hostage was shot

BAGHDAD - An American aid worker taken hostage with three other peace activists was apparently tortured before he was shot and his body dumped near a railroad line in Baghdad, Iraqi police said Saturday.

Tom Fox, a 54-year-old member of Christian Peacemaker Teams from Clear Brook, Va., was the fifth American hostage killed in Iraq. There was no immediate word on his fellow captives, a Briton and two Canadians.

The U.S. command in Baghdad confirmed that Fox's body was picked up by U.S. forces on Thursday evening, but it provided no information on its condition.

Interior Ministry Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said Fox was found with his hands tied and gunshot wounds to his head and chest. There were cuts on his body and bruises on his head, indicating torture, he said.

Fox's body was found near a railway line in Dawoudi, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area that has been largely shielded from violence. Shocked residents condemned Fox's abduction and killing.

"These acts are terrorist ones and will hinder the political process and distort the reputation of Iraq," said Dhamir al-Samaraie, who had come to see where Fox was found.

The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility for kidnapping the four Christian Peacemaker Teams members, who disappeared Nov. 26.

Three of them - Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; and Briton Norman Kember, 74 - were seen in a video dated Feb. 28 that was broadcast Tuesday on Al-Jazeera television. Fox did not appear in the brief, silent videotape.

At least 250 foreigners have been kidnapped since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and at least 40 have been killed.

Still missing is Jill Carroll, a freelance writer for the Christian Science Monitor who was kidnapped Jan. 7 in Baghdad.

An Iraqi journalist, meanwhile, was gunned down on his way to work Saturday, becoming at least the fifth media figure killed since an outbreak of sectarian violence after the bombing late last month of a Shiite shrine.

Amjad Hameed, a journalist for Iraqiya television, was shot in the head and chest. His driver, Anwar Turki, also died.

At least four other people were killed in drive-by shootings in Iraq on Saturday, police said.

[Last modified March 12, 2006, 01:19:10]