Al-Jazeera: 3 Iraq troops beheaded
Hungary to pull out 300 soldiers in March despite Iraq request to stay
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 U.S. forces prepare for an assault on Falluja.
 At least eight U.S. Marines die west of Baghdad.
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(CNN) -- The Arabic-language news channel Al-Jazeera Wednesday aired video of what it described as three kidnapped Iraqi National Guard members and reported that they were beheaded, though it declined to show the grisly footage of the killings.
The abductors are from a group calling itself the Brigades of the Iraqi Honorables, a previously unknown group.
Al-Jazeera aired video showing each man individually and displayed their identification cards. There was footage of a masked militant standing behind the three of them -- sitting down or kneeling down.
The insurgents accused the men of spying for U.S. troops and helping arrest insurgents.
Al-Jazeera said they saw video of the beheading but would not air it.
Earlier Wednesday, the Iraqi Defense Ministry confirmed the abduction and beheading of an Iraqi army officer after a video was aired on a militant group's Web site.
A ministry official said on Wednesday that Maj. Hussein Shanoun was seized 10 days ago in Mosul in northern Iraq, and his decapitated body was found three days ago.
The Army of Ansar al-Sunnah -- which has claimed responsibility for kidnappings and attacks -- posted a video on its Web site of a senior Army officer's beheading, identifying the victim as Maj. Shanoun.
In a political development, Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said the country would pull out its non-combat force of 300 transport troops by March 31.
The interim Iraqi government had asked them to stay approximately another year. (Full story)
Meanwhile Wednesday, in western Baghdad insurgents gunned down a top Iraqi oil official in a drive-by shooting, police said.
A combat patrol near Baghdad's Salmarn Pak neighborhood was also struck by a roadside bomb, killing a 1st Infantry Division Soldier and injuring another, the U.S. military said.
The death brings the total of U.S. troop fatalities in the Iraqi war to 1,124.
Late Tuesday, abductors seized a Lebanese-American man from Baghdad's al-Mansour district, a day after six others -- including an American -- were abducted from the same neighborhood, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
According to Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, the man, Radeen Sadeq, is a contractor working for a mobile communications company.
He is originally from Lebanon, but carries a U.S. passport, Rahman said.
U.S. warplanes overnight kept up the pressure in Falluja, delivering another nightly round of strikes on insurgent targets -- part of a wave of daily American assaults seen as a prelude to an all-out U.S.-led offensive.
Their latest strikes targeted a command post and a weapons cache.
Also, U.S. Army advanced support elements have arrived at Camp Falluja near the restive city to support a potential Marine operation or offensive, according to a pool reporter at the scene.
Talk of a major Falluja offensive has grown louder in recent days, even as the interim government is attempting to negotiate a peace in the city with influential Fallujans.
Government officials have said that the locals must produce militants based in the city or there will be a major offensive against them.
U.S. and Iraqi officials say the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terror network is based there.
The Combined Press Information Center issued a statement Wednesday saying that over the last 12 hours, Iraqi and multinational forces have conducted "coordinated offensive operations in and around the Falluja-Ramadi area"
The military said insurgents have launched attacks since Monday with "small arms fire, indirect fire, rocket propelled grenades, and improvised explosive devices."
There is a $25 million bounty for al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist leader, and a group that claims allegiance to him -- the Base of Jihad -- is being linked to another high-profile hostage-taking.
Since Monday, CPIC said U.S. and Iraqi forces have come under fire from insurgents in the Falluja and Ramadi area as the operation to rout out insurgents in the area continues.
Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, warned Sunday that he was getting closer to authorizing military action against insurgents in Falluja.
In Baghdad, a car bomb near a government building killed at least six people on Tuesday, authorities said.
Other developments
The Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera Tuesday reported that abductors of Margaret Hassan -- the head of CARE International in Iraq -- have threatened to turn her over to the Base of Jihad, a group claiming allegiance to al-Zarqawi.This would happen if the British government does not withdraw its troops from Iraq within 48 hours, according to a statement on a tape the network received. (Full story)For the first time since the U.S.-led Iraq war began in March of 2003, a female British soldier has died in Iraq, the Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. Staff Sgt. Denise Michelle Rose of the Royal Military Police's Special Investigation Branch "was found dead from a gunshot wound at the Army base in the Shatt-al-Arab Hotel" in Basra, Iraq, on Sunday. The Defense Ministry said Rose's death is "not thought to have been the result of hostile action." Her death brings the number of British military fatalities the war to 70, according to the ministry. (Full story)
A group claiming to be linked to al-Zarqawi on Tuesday issued a claim of responsibility on a Web site for the recent killing of a Japanese hostage. The Web site also posted a video showing his beheading by masked men. The body of Shosei Koda was found this weekend in a Baghdad neighborhood, wrapped in an American flag, with his head resting on top, a Japanese government source said.Producers Kianne Sadeq, Ayman Mohyeldin, Mohammed Tawfeeq, and Cal Perry contributed to this report
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
