2006年VOA标准英语-More Kidnappings, Car Bombs Hit Iraqi Capi

By Ben Gilbert
Baghdad
18 January 2006

Gunmen killed 10 guards and kidnapped an African engineer in an attack on a private security convoy¹ in  Baghdad, Wednesday.  The kidnapping comes less than one day after the abductors threatened to kill kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll.  Carroll appeared in a videotape broadcast on satellite channel Al Jazeera on Tuesday.  Violence continued to rise in Baghdad and around the country, as Iraqis prepare for a government to form later this month. 

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Iraqi police inspect the wreckage² of a suicide bomb near the home of a prominent Shiite political leader, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006, in Baghdad   
  

ozens of Iraqi police with automatic weapons blocked the main street in a Baghdad neighborhood Wednesday after a parked car bomb exploded at rush hour.  Abu Saif, a neighborhood resident, says he was sitting nearby when the bomb went off.

A young man parked his car here and got out, he said.  The road was blocked because a government official was passing on the street.  Five minutes later the traffic started moving again, and then the young man's parked car blew up.

One other car was damaged in the explosion.  The car's burnt frame smoldered³ in the middle of the road, the passenger side door pockmarked with shrapnel holes.  Nearby, three unexploded artillery⁴ shells from the car bomb sat caked in ash on the wet
pavement, still damp from firemens' hoses.

Witnesses said the damaged vehicle had been carrying four women and a man.  Only one of them was injured in the attack, the witnesses said.

But across town in west Baghdad, the toll⁵ was much worst.  In broad daylight, gunmen ambushed⁶ the three car security convoy of an African engineer working for an Iraqi mobile phone company.  The attack killed several of the company's guards, and gunmen kidnapped the engineer.  The fate of another foreign engineer working for the same company and believed to be in the convoy is not known.

The kidnapping is the second high profile abduction this month.  American freelance journalist Jill Carroll was kidnapped on January 7 from a dangerous western Baghdad neighborhood, while on assignment for the Christian⁷ Science Monitor newspaper.  
 

Jill Carroll appears in silent 20-second video aired Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2006 by Al-Jazeera  
  
On Tuesday, the satellite news channel Al Jazeera aired a 20-second, silent video that showed Carroll speaking to the camera in front of a white background.  Al Jazeera said the tape was accompanied by a note demanding the release of all female prisoners detained in Iraq.  Al Jazeera said the note was from a previously⁸ unknown group calling itself "The Revenge Brigade."  The group said it would kill Carroll if their demands were not met in 72 hours.

Gunmen ambushed Carroll, her driver and translator as they left the office of a prominent Sunni politician, Adnan Al Dulaimi, in a dangerous west Baghdad neighborhood.  Carroll had gone to the office to interview Mr. Dulaimi, but the politician was not there.  As they left his office, gunmen stopped the car, and sped off with Carroll and her translator.  Her translator, an Iraqi Christian known for owning a popular pre-war music shop that sold western CDs, was found dead a short time later on nearby street. 

Carroll's family issued a statement appealing for her release, saying the 28-year-old reporter had been a friend and sister to many Iraqis, and has been dedicated⁹ to bringing the truth of the Iraq war to the world.

1 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

2 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

3 smoldered   

v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的过去式 )

参考例句：

• The conflict that smoldered between Aunt Addie and me flared openly. 艾迪小姨和我之间闷在心里的冲突突然公开化了。 来自辞典例句
• After the surrender, an ever-present feud over the horse smoldered between Scarlett and Suellen. 投降以后，思嘉和苏伦之间一直存在的关于那骑马的急论眼看就要爆发了。 来自飘（部分）

4 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

5 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

6 ambushed   

v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 )；埋伏着

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The military vehicles were ambushed. 军车遭到伏击。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

9 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。