Militants threaten to kill 3 hostages

The threat was issued as the spate of violence continued across the country. A suicide car bomb ripped into a crowd of people lining up to apply for jobs in the Iraqi National Guard in Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northern Iraq. At least 23 people were killed and 53 wounded, hospital officials said.

Two US soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in a car bombing on the highway to Baghdad International Airport. The soldiers were traveling to the scene of an earlier bombing.

The attack in Kirkuk was the third car bombing of the week targeting Iraqi security forces, a key component of the effort to improve security before elections scheduled for January. That appears to be an increasingly challenging feat amid violence that has included firefights in central Baghdad, a wave of kidnappings, and seven car bombings overall in the past week alone.

To counter the insurgency before the vote, US and Iraqi forces have launched an offensive to reclaim areas throughout the country where the interim government has little control. The places include Fallujah and Ramadi in western Iraq; the stronghold of rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad's Sadr City section; and areas just south of Baghdad, where a group linked to Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi appears to be seizing hostages from major roads.

Hundreds of Iraqis died last week as insurgents stepped up a campaign of violence and as the United States launched a series of airstrikes in Fallujah. The US attacks targeted what the military said were meeting places of terrorists loyal to Zarqawi, whom the Pentagon calls the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

But so far, they have not been able to stop the audacious assaults that Zarqawi's group claims to be carrying out. The trio's kidnapping Thursday, the second time this month that an armed gang seized foreigners in a central Baghdad area that had been considered relatively safe, deepened the atmosphere of fear and tension in the capital.

Tawhid and Jihad, a group said to be led by Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the latest kidnappings, according to Al-Jazeera, which broadcast a video of three men in blindfolds who were identified as American contractors Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley and British engineer Kenneth Bigley. On the video, an armed man is seen pointing a gun at the back of one prisoner's head.

The group set a 48-hour deadline for the United States to release Iraqi women from prisons in Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr, ''or they would implement the death penalty" against the hostages.

But Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the US military, said Abu Ghraib prison and Camp Bucca, a US prison near Umm Qasr, do not hold any women.

''The only females we hold are two high-value detainees, which are kept with the other approximately 100 high-value detainees in a separate, secure location," Johnson said. The two are believed to be Salih Mahdi Amash, known as ''Dr. Anthrax," and Rihab Taha, known as ''Dr. Germ."

Kidnapping has become a major tool of intimidation against Iraqis and foreigners. More than 100 foreigners and countless Iraqis have been kidnapped, and at least 30 foreign hostages have been killed.

Tawhid and Jihad has also claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of two female Italian aid workers from their organization's office in a Baghdad villa Sept. 9, and of two male French journalists missing since they disappeared in August on the way to the southern city of Najaf.

In other violence, insurgents apparently attempted to repeat a car bomb attack Friday that killed five Iraqis during a joint Iraqi-US raid on an area of Haifa Street. In yesterday's attack, a suicide bomber drove into an Iraqi police roadblock. Iraqi authorities said the attackers were foiled when police stopped the vehicle as it attempted to enter Haifa Street.

''Its two occupants were killed, and the bomb successfully defused," Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said in a statement.

A senior coalition military official said that the Haifa Street operations were part of the nationwide push that includes operations in Ramadi and the airstrikes in Fallujah.

''What you're seeing is continuing operations throughout Iraq to deal with terrorists and insurgents," the official said on condition of anonymity. He added that the participation of Iraqi forces ''shows the continuing increase in their capability to conduct security operations."

There were reminders elsewhere that the US-backed interim government does not control key areas, such as the road to Baghdad International Airport. The highway, a few miles long and a key link between a major US base and the Green Zone headquarters downtown, has long been the scene of insurgent attacks and roadside bombs.

The US Consulate sent out a warning that because of a ''specific threat," US citizens and embassy employees should stay off the highway for at least 24 hours.

Hours later, a roadside bomb along the highway injured three US soldiers, the military said. When other American troops moved to the scene, another car bomb exploded, killing two.

Also yesterday, a mortar landed near a technical school in Baqubah, injuring 11 students, the US military said.

In Ramadi, hospital officials yesterday reported finding the body of Bassem Mohammed, the deputy governor of Anbar Province, which includes Fallujah and Ramadi, who had been kidnapped earlier.

Last month, Ramadi's governor resigned in exchange for the release of his sons, who had been kidnapped by insurgents.

Material from Reuters and the Associated Press was used in this report. Anne Barnard can be reached at abarnard@globe.com.