Iraq Leader Says Raging Insurgency Won't Derail Elections ; Videotape Shows Beheading of Kurds

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BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi prime minister insisted Sunday that the raging insurgency which has claimed 300 lives in the last week alone and resulted in a wave of kidnappings will not delay January elections, promising the vote will strike a "major blow" against the violent opposition.

Meanwhile, a grisly videotape posted on a Web site showed the beheading of three hostages believed to be Iraqi Kurds accused by militants of cooperating with U.S. forces. A separate group also claimed to have captured 18 Iraqi soldiers and threatened to kill them unless a detained aide of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al- Sadr was freed, according to the Arab news station Al-Jazeera.

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Iraq Leader Says Raging Insurgency Won't Derail Elections ; Videotape Shows Beheading of Kurds

In another sign of continuing instability 17 months into the U.S.- led occupation of Iraq, a suicide car bomb killed three people in Samarra a northern city that U.S. and Iraqi commanders have portrayed as a succes...

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