An Iraqi group said on its Web site Thursday that it had executed 11 Iraqi troops taken hostage south of Baghdad and posted video of the bound men being shot or beheaded.
According to The AP, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army said it had beheaded one and shot the 10 others.
"After investigating with them and (hearing) their confessions, it turned out this group was responsible for guarding the Crusader American troops in Radwaniya area and what's around it in southern Baghdad," a statement posted on the web site said.
A voiceo of a man identified as the head of the group warned Iraqi security forces. "A call to the army and police: Repent to God ... abandon your weapons and go home and beware of supporting the apostate Crusaders or their followers, the Iraqi government, or else you will only find death."
A written statement added that "we will not forget about the blood of our elderly, women and children that are shed daily in Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi and elsewhere on your hands and the hands of those you work with."
In new violence Thursday, a car bomb went off in southern Baghdad, killing a U.S. soldier and at least one Iraqi civilian and injuring two other American troops, the U.S. military said.
Also Thursday, an armed Iraqi group in a videotape, shown by Al-Jazeera television, presented a Polish woman hostage held in Iraq and demanded that Poland remove all its forces from Iraq and that Iraqi female detainees be freed.
Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said the woman was a longtime Iraq resident with Iraqi citizenship and was believed to have been abducted Wednesday night from her home in Baghdad.
Elsewhere, at least two Iraqis were killed in clashes between American soldiers and Iraqi resistance fighters in the city of Ramadi.
US marines said the fighting erupted in Ramadi after a patrol came under fire during a pre-dawn search of houses for weapons in the city, west of Baghdad.
According to AFP, doctors at a local hospital said at least two people were killed and eight injured, while the military said three marines were wounded.
**Occupation Troops Prepare to Attack Falluja and Ramadi***
U.S. marines prepared on Friday to mount a "decisive" assault on Falluja and Ramadi to crush Iraqi resistance.
We are gearing up for a major operation," Brgadier General Denis Hajlik told reporters at a base near Falluja. "If we do so, it will be decisive and we will whack them."
Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government has vowed to pacify the whole country before nationwide elections due in January.
U.S. planes have staged almost daily air strikes on what the military says are safe houses used by a network of Iraqi and foreign fighters.
**PHOTO CAPTION***
U.S. Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment return fire on resistance positions in Ramadi, Iraq, Friday Oct. 29, 2004. (AP)