INTERNACIONAL

Al Qaida Linked Group Claims Kidnapping of 18 Iraqi Men

Iraqi officials say the bodies of 14 policemen have been found, hours after a Sunni, al-Qaida-linked group said it seized 18 men to avenge an alleged rape of a Sunni woman by Baghdad police. Officials say the bodies were discovered Friday in Diyala province. Iraqi officials had earlier reported 14 policemen missing in Diyala. Also Friday, the U.S. military says a roadside bomb killed two soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter north of Baghdad. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from northern Iraq.

An alliance of Sunni Arab groups posted photos on the internet of 18 Iraqi officials, some wearing police uniforms, that it said had been kidnapped in Diyala province.

The alliance said the abduction was in retaliation for last month's alleged gang rape of a Sunni woman by Baghdad police. The woman's allegations, which have been aired on Arab television stations, have provoked an outcry among Iraqi Sunnis who regularly claim abuses by Shi'ite police patrols.

Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, has ordered an investigation into the alleged rape, but he also has cast doubt on the allegations, calling them a tactic by Sunni leaders to discredit the security operation in Baghdad.

Also Friday in Iraq's Sunni majority al Anbar province, Sunni tribal leaders said they are establishing a new political group to represent the needs of Anbar residents.

Sheikh Abdul Satar Abu Risha, a prominent Anbar leader who has headed an alliance of tribes fighting al-Qaida-linked groups in the region, told Iraqi television that the group plans to campaign for national elections in two years.

He says the group will broaden its activities beyond Anbar and will work with the Iraqi government and the parliament for the interests of people living in Anbar province.

Persuading Sunni groups to participate in Iraq's political system has been a key goal of U.S. officials in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iraq's Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, has given his first interview on national television since he was hospitalized in Amman, Jordan on Sunday.

In an interview first broadcast on Thursday evening in Iraq, Talabani thanked Jordan's King Abdullah and the hospital staff for helping him through his recent sickness.

The 73-year-old leader said he planned to return home, but he did not say when. Doctors have said little about his condition other than that Talabani was suffering from exhaustion.