Iraqi Insurgents Step Up Attacks

Insurgents in Iraq have stepped-up attacks against government officials and security forces Tuesday, killing or kidnapping at least five people.

Iraqi officials report the killings of a police officer in Basra, a local official in Hillah and a Sunni cleric in Baghdad, while a video on an Islamist website purportedly shows the beheading of an Iraqi soldier.

Meanwhile, a brigadier general in the Iraqi army, Jalal Mohammed Saleh, was ambushed and kidnapped in western Baghdad.

Also in the capital, a roadside bomb explosion killed an American soldier and wounded four others.

Also Tuesday, President Bush said the al-Qaida-claimed attack on Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison shows the terror network is still deadly. He says the massive Saturday assault on the facility, which wounded several U.S. troops and Iraqi prisoners, shows al-Qaida's strategy remains to kill as many innocent people as it can.

Late Monday, two American and one Iraqi soldier were killed in a battle with insurgents in the eastern Diyala province.

Wednesday, the Iraqi national assembly is to meet to elect a president, two vice presidents and a prime minister. On Sunday, lawmakers elected a Sunni Arab as the parliament speaker.

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.