Pinoy wounded in Iraq attack

A Filipino engineer was wounded when Iraqi rebels opened fire with automatic rifles Sunday on a car transporting him and three others to their work site in Mosul City in northern Iraq to install a mobile telephone network, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Two Iraqis –the car’s driver and a bodyguard –were killed in the attack, along with an Indonesian who was also a passenger in the car.

Malacañang, meanwhile, said yesterday that the suspension of processing of overseas Filipino workers bound for Iraq is continuously being evaluated to protect not only OFWs but also the national interest.

Outgoing Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, who is set to take on the foreign portfolio shortly, disclosed that the ban on deployment of OFWs to the war-torn country is not permanent.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Affairs Jose Brillantes confirmed yesterday to broadcaster Rey Langit over radio station dwIZ that a Filipino engineer working for the German firm Siemens was indeed wounded in a rebel attack in Iraq.

Quoting a report from the Philippine embassy in Baghdad, the DFA said 50-year-old Danilo Pacia is now out of danger and recuperating in a hospital.

Pacia, who comes from Mandaluyong City, was shown in a photograph wearing a cast in his right arm and flashing the peace sign with his left hand, the report added.

Retired Gen. Roy Cimatu, special envoy to the Middle East, said Pacia was not bound for Iraq when he left for abroad last March, and that he must have entered the war-torn country via neighboring Turkey.

The Philippines has agreements with Jordan and Kuwait to bar Filipinos from crossing their borders into Iraq, he added.

Romulo’s reassurance that the employment ban was being reviewed was in response to deposed President Joseph Estrada’s advise to the government to lift the ban and instead issue a travel advisory.

"We are looking at that (lifting of ban). But the policy question that we confronted in the Angelo de la Cruz case is that a very important national interest is the life of the OFW truck driver," he said, referring to the two-week hostage crisis when the Filipino was held by Iraqi militants, who demanded that the Philippines pull out its humanitarian contingent in exchange for De la Cruz’s life.

Vice President Noli de Castro said yesterday the government may lift the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq.

"Inaantay natin ang recommendation ng ibang government agencies involved dito para mapagaralan whether nor not to lift the ban," he said.

On the other hand Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said the latest incident will bolster the government’s decision not to allow Filipino workers to return to Iraq.

"The government and the foreign employers have mutual goal to provide employment, but our concern is the safety of our workers," she said.

"But if they could guarantee the safety of our workers, we will let them go."

In Iraq, police Col. Hashem Ahmad told reporters one of the cars in the two-vehicle convoy was able to speed off and avoid the attackers.

"Two cars carrying engineers, translators and bodyguards came under automatic gunfire around 6 p.m. on a bridge in the Al-Ridai neighborhood," he said.

"In the second car, an Indonesian engineer, an (Iraqi) driver and bodyguard were killed, while the Filipino (engineer) was wounded."

Earlier this year, Siemens won an $8.6-million contract to provide equipment to mobile operator Asia Cell to develop the GSM network in northern Iraq.

Last June, Siemens withdrew all its German employees from Iraq for security reasons.

Separately, another two Iraqis –a security guard and a civilian –were shot dead by unknown gunmen who stormed a commerce ministry warehouse in Mosul, said police Col. Matez Taka.

Another three Iraqis were wounded when a mortar bomb was fired on a local US military base, said police officer Maher Saeed.

Two Iraqi children were injured in the blast, said Dr.

Mohammed Ahmed of al-Jumhuri hospital.

The bomb exploded as the convoy passed a road west of Mosul, 360 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, said Capt. Angela Bowman, a US military spokeswoman in Mosul.

The soldiers that were killed and wounded were assigned to Task Force Olympia.

The wounded soldier was in stable condition, the

military said.

The names of the soldiers were being withheld pending

the notification of next of kin.

Explosions and gunfire shook Najaf’s Old City

on Sunday in a fierce battle between US forces and Shiite

militants, who remained in control of a revered shrine here as negotiations dragged on for its handover to religious authorities.

Late Sunday, US warplanes and helicopters attacked positions in the Old City for the second night with bombs and gunfire, witnesses said.

Militant leaders said the Imam Ali Shrine compound’s outer walls were damaged in the attacks; the US military had no immediate comment, though it has been careful to avoid damage to the compound.

The clashes in Najaf on Sunday appeared more intense than in recent days as US forces sealed off Najaf’s Old City.

But Iraqi government officials counseled patience, saying they intended to resolve the crisis without raiding the shrine, one of Shia Islam’s holiest sites.

"The government will leave no stone unturned to reach a peaceful settlement," Iraqi national security adviser Mouaffaq al-Rubaie told The Associated Press.

"It has no intention or interest in killing more people or having even the most trivial damage to the shrine. We have a vested interest in a peaceful settlement."

Senior government officials said last week an Iraqi force was preparing to raid the shrine within hours to expel the militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, but interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi quickly backed off that threat.

Such an operation would anger Shiites across the country and could turn them against the new government as it tries to gain legitimacy and tackle a 16-month-old insurgency.

In the Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni insurgency, four US Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in separate incidents, the military announced Sunday.

One Marine was killed in action Saturday and two others died Saturday of wounds received while conducting "security and stability operations" in the province, the military said.

Another Marine was killed Saturday when his Humvee flipped after running into a tank, the military said.

As of Friday, 949 US service members have died since the

beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the US Defense Department.

Late Sunday, US journalist Micah Garen, who was kidnapped Aug. 13 in the southern city of Nasiriyah, was released along with his Iraqi translator at al-Sadr’s offices there after the cleric’s aides appealed for his freedom.

In a brief interview with the pan-Arab television station

Al-Jazeera after his release, Garen thanked al-Sadr’s

representatives for their work, which included an appeal to the kidnappers during Friday prayers.

Sheik Aws al-Khafaji, an al-Sadr aide, said the kidnappers

mistakenly had thought Garen was working for the US intelligence services.

"The kidnappers listened to the call that we made during Friday prayers, and they contacted us and we asked them to bring him to (al-Sadr’s) office and promised that no one would pursue them," al-Khafaji said.

In the southern city of Basra an Iraqi intelligence officer,

kidnapped nearly a week ago and threatened with death if US and Iraqi forces did not end the violence in Najaf, was found dead, his body riddled with bullets, police said Sunday. — AP, AFP, Marvin Sy, Marichu Villanueva, Mayen Jaymalin, Pia Lee-Brago