Iraqi Insurgents Kill 19, Kidnap British Reporter

19 October 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Insurgents in Iraqi staged a series of attacks today, killing 19 people.
Three election officials from the Baghdad area were shot dead as they returned home from counting ballots from last week's constitutional referendum.

In the town of Al-Iskandariyah, some 50 kilometers south of Baghdad, insurgents lined up six Shi'ite factory workers and shot them dead in front of their co-workers.

Insurgents also attacked a police checkpoint near the Al-Adil highway, killing four policemen and wounding 11 other people.

Other attacks in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk left six other people dead and at least three others wounded.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today her country would deploy military-civilian reconstruction teams to Iraq to help rebuild the country and defuse the insurgency.

Meanwhile, a reporter for the British daily newspaper "The Guardian" was reported missing in Iraq by the newspaper.

A statement from the newspaper said reporter Rory Carroll was on assignment earlier today when he went missing. The statement said it was believed that armed men seized Carroll.

(news agencies)