6 Iraqis, US Soldier Killed in Early June 24, 2007 Report, 11 US Soldiers Killed Yesterday, More Former Iraqi Leaders Sentenced to Death

The Iraq News Agency (INA) reported that Iraqis and a US soldier were killed on June , 2007.

- An Iraqi woman activist, Rabiha Al-Hamzawi, was found killed in a farm in Balad.

- A member of a local council of the city of Yathreb, near Balad, Salem Muhammed, was kidnapped.

- Five Iraqis were killed in Ba'aqouba by Iraqi soldiers, as alleged resistance fighters. A total of 58 fighters have been killed so far. US forces reported killing 90 Iraqi fighters.

The (US) Associated Press news agency (AP) reported no Iraqi deaths but a US soldier killed on June 24, 2007. It also corrected the number of US soldiers killed yesterday to 11. The AP reported the following news.

Two decades after Iraq's military laid waste to Kurdish villages, the Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majid, (dubbed by western media as Chemical Ali), and two others to death for their roles in the bloody campaign against the restive ethnic minority (during the Kurdish rebellion in the 1980s).

Two others sentenced to hang were former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tay'a and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces.

Interrupting the judge as the verdict was read, Mohammed said the defendants were defending Iraq against Kurdish rebels. "God bless our martyrs. Long live the brave Iraqi army. Long live Iraq. Long live the Ba'ath party and long live Arab Nation," he declared.

Two other former regime officials - Sabir al-Douri, former director of military intelligence, and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, who was head of military intelligence's eastern regional office - were sentenced to life in prison. All charges were dropped against Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, a former governor of Mosul, because of insufficient evidence.

General Bednarek said the U.S. force has killed between 60 and 100 suspected Iraqi fighters so far in western Baqouba, about 60 alleged Iraqi resistance fighters have been detained, and fewer than 500 civilians displaced from their homes. One American soldier has died in the fighting, he said.

He estimated between 50 and 100 Iraqi fighters remained inside a U.S. security "noose" closing on the Khatoon neighborhood of western Baqouba.

The U.S. command in Baghdad, meanwhile, reported a total of 11 soldiers killed on Saturday, including seven killed by roadside bombs, four by a single blast near Baghdad. The deaths raised to at least 31 the number of American soldiers killed in the past week.

Associated Press Writers Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad, Lauren Frayer in Baqouba and Omar Sinan in Halabja contributed to this report.

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