At least 23 people were killed in violence yesterday, and 21 bodies were found in Baghdad or to the south, many of them bound and tortured. In the evening, gunmen burst into a frozen food factory in Baghdad, kidnapping 24 workers and wounding two others. The attack was similar to past attacks in which militants have picked out members of the opposing sect from among the captives and killed them.
The US military also reported yesterday that two American soldiers were killed the day before in fighting in western Anbar Province, bringing to at least 70 the number of US service members killed in September, the second-highest monthly toll this year after April, when 76 died.
Iraqi troops backed by American military advisers arrested a suspected Shi'ite militiaman believed to have carried out kidnappings and killings.
A gun battle broke out at the suspect's house in Baghdad's Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City, leaving a woman and a girl dead, Iraqi police said.
Afterward, angry men at the scene held up a color photo of a smiling, winking Jesus giving a thumbs-up sign that they said was left by troops at the raided house, an allegation denied by US and Iraqi officials.
The photo, known as the ``Buddy Christ," is from the movie ``Dogma," a 1999 religious satire in which ``Buddy Christ" is part of a church campaign to improve Jesus' image.
US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said the photo was a ``rather ridiculous attempt" to discredit the raid. It was unclear how it ended up at the site.
The potential government crisis erupted after US troops arrested a bodyguard of Sunni politician Adnan Dulaimi on Friday, saying the man was suspected of leading an Al Qaeda-linked cell that was ``in the final stages" of carrying out bombings in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, the center of government and home to the US and British embassies.
Dulaimi heads the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab party, which has 44 seats in the 275-member parliament and positions in Maliki's government, including a supporter in the Defense Minister post.
