A total of 24 top former officials in Saddam Hussein's regime, including a biological weapons expert known as "Dr. Germ," have been released from jail. Rihab Taha, a British-educated biological weapons specialist, who was known as "Dr. Germ" for her role in making bio-weapons in the 1980s, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as "Mrs. Anthrax," a former top Baath Party official and biotech researcher were freed.
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed to the AP that eight individuals formerly designated as high-value detainees were released Saturday after a board process found they were no longer a security threat and no charges would be filed against them.
Suicide bombing attack
A suicide car bomb exploded on Monday outside a children’s hospital in the western Iskan district of Baghdad killing at least two civilians.
11 people were also wounded in the attack, including seven Iraqi policemen, including an Iraqi police colonel and two of his bodyguards.
Iraqi security sources believe that the attack was intended to kill the colonel, who was passing by the hospital at the time in his convoy, according to the AP.
In a separate assassination attempt, an advisor to Iraq’s Defense Minister escaped unharmed after a bomb exploded near his convoy in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Three of his bodyguards were injured in the attack.
Four Iraqi civilians were injured when a car bomb exploded northeast of Baghdad in the town of Miqdadiya.
Iraqi spokesmen announced that on Sunday, an Iraqi guard was killed and three others wounded when the offices of the Turkmn front were attacked by gunmen.
A U.S. Marine was killed by small arms fire Sunday in the town of Ramadi, in central Iraq, the US Army said on Monday.
American executed
Meanwhile, an Iraqi group claimed on a Web site posted Monday that it had killed an American taken hostage in Iraq and issued a video showing a man being shot in the back of the head. The Islamic Army of Iraq claimed Ronald Allen Schulz, an American adviser, had been executed.
The victim was kneeling with his back to the camera, with his hands tied behind his back and blindfolded when he was shot. The video also showed Schulz's identity card.
Aid worker released after three weeks in captivity
On Sunday, German humanitarian aid worker Susanne Osthoff was released by her Iraqi captors after being kidnapped three weeks ago on November 25. German officials said that Osthoff, 43, was in good physical condition.
Her driver, Khalid Al Shimani, who was also kidnapped, has not been released, though her captors said that he too would be freed, though they did not specify a date.
The two were shown on videotape several days after being kidnapped sitting on the floor blindfolded.
Osthoff was the first German to be kidnapped in Iraq. Those responsible for the kidnapping threatened to kill them unless Germany stopped dealing with the Iraqi government.
According to local authorities, Osthoff had been working on the renovation of historic buildings in the northern city of Mosul.
