At least nine people were killed, and two wounded in separate attacks in Iraq, while a Shiite Sadrist group said CBS journalists would be released within hours, Iraqi officials said Wednesday, according to dpa. East of the Iraqi capital, militants opened fire on workers, killing five and wounding another two, security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "Militants driving three vehicles opened fire on seven workers on their way to the construction site. Five of them are dead and the other two are severely injured," an Iraqi official told dpa. In Kirkuk, some 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, joint US-Iraqi forces killed a leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network and his driver. "Iraqi forces supported by US military managed to kill Fouad Abu- Rosl, one of the al-Qaeda chiefs, in the late hours of Tuesday. His driver was also shot dead," sources told dpa. Iraqi forces said Wednesday that US military killed two former Iraqi army officers in Baquba, some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad. "US military forces raided the houses of two army officers, killing both of them and burning their houses," sources said. In another development, a Shiite group loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said a British journalist and his Iraqi interpreter, who are believed to have been abducted in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, would be released Wednesday evening or Thursday morning at the latest. Earlier, sources close to the group told dpa a deal had been reached for the release of both men, who work for the US television network CBS.
