BAGHDAD : An Iraqi militant accused of killing three American soldiers in a grisly checkpoint ambush was convicted yesterday and sentenced to death by hanging. Two other men accused in the 2006 deaths were acquitted. The case marked the first time an Iraqi investigative judge sent a case involving an Iraqi killing of specific Americans to trial. The soldiers were ambushed June 16, 2006, while at an isolated checkpoint near the Euphrates River. One soldier was found dead at the site of the checkpoint. The two other 101st Airborne Division soldiers were kidnapped. Their mutiliated bodies were found three days later. Ibrahim al-Qaraghuli, a 29-year-old farmer, was convicted in the deaths of David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass.; Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston; and Pfc. Thomas Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.
Syria shuts U.S. school in response to raid
DAMASCUS, Syria : The Syrian government ordered an American school and a U.S. cultural center in Damascus closed yesterday in response to a deadly U.S. attack on a village near the Iraq border, the state-run news agency said. U.S. officials said the raid killed a top operative of al-Qaida in Iraq, but Syria and the Iraqi government criticized the raid. Also, freshly evaluated soil and air samples from a Syrian site bombed by Israel on suspicion that it was a covert nuclear reactor provide enough evidence to push ahead with a U.N. probe, diplomats said yesterday. The results are scheduled to be made public at the International Atomic Energy Agency's meeting of its 35-nation board of governors next month.
