IRAQ: US forces in Iraq are freeing two of Saddam Hussein's leading biological warfare experts following the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, lawyers said yesterday.
Meanwhile, partial results from last week's parliamentary elections suggested that Shia Islamists would hold their dominant position in Iraqi politics.
The two weapons experts, British-trained microbiologist Rihab Taha, nicknamed Dr Germ, and US-educated genetic engineer Huda Ammash, nicknamed Mrs Anthrax, were captured by US forces in May 2003.
The women admitted working on Saddam's biological and germ warfare projects but said such weapons were destroyed long before the US invasion. Baghdad lawyer Badia Aref said Dr Taha and Dr Ammash were among 26 senior detainees in the process of being released.
The level of violence in Iraq has risen since the successful and largely peaceful poll on December 15th, the first parliamentary election since the war in which Sunni Arabs voted in strength.
The partial election results released yesterday showed the Shia United Iraqi Alliance had won 58 per cent of the vote in Baghdad against just 14 per cent for former prime minister Iyad Allawi, who had been expected to mount a stronger challenge.
In its southern heartland, the alliance appeared to have swept the board.
In the latest attacks, a suicide car bomber targeted a convoy carrying an Iraqi police colonel in Baghdad. Two civilians were killed by the blast, which left the smoking wreckage of eight cars strewn across a street. The colonel, two bodyguards and five civilians were wounded.
In another district, gunmen fired on the convoy of Baghdad's deputy governor, Ziyad al-Zawbai. Three of his bodyguards were killed and Mr al-Zawbai was wounded.
Attackers set off bombs in Basra, Iraq's second city, wounding three bodyguards of an adviser to the defence minister, and in Miqdadiya, 90 km (56 miles) northeast of Baghdad, wounding four civilians.
Insurgents released an internet video they said showed the killing of US hostage Ronald Schulz. The video was posted 11 days after the kidnappers said they had killed him because the US government had failed to meet its demands, including the release of prisoners in Iraq. The video showed a gunman firing repeatedly into the back of a blindfolded man.
Another western hostage, German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, was safe in Baghdad after being released, officials said. At least six other western hostages are believed to be held in Iraq.
Reuters