Four people were killed, including at least three who appeared to be foreigners, when gunmen attacked a car in the northern Iraq city of Mosul on Friday.
One of the victims tried to run to safety but was caught by the insurgents and beheaded by the side of the road, witnesses said. Two of the dead men appeared to be Westerners.
The killings suggest that the insurgency is starting once again to target foreigners in Iraq after a lull of several weeks. Militants claimed on Thursday they had killed an Italian aid worker near the western town of Ramadi.
The attack on Friday happened at an intersection in central Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city. Gunmen fired on a white Chevrolet saloon car as it passed by and then set it on fire, witnesses said.
A photographer working for Reuters who was at the scene said three of the dead appeared to be foreigners, one Turkish and the other two Western. The fourth man, apparently the driver, was an Arab.
Witnesses said the men were carrying small automatic weapons, suggesting they were either contractors or bodyguards for businessmen.
Despite the obvious dangers, as many as 40 000 foreigners are still working in Iraq, mostly in private security firms operating alongside the United States military. The British government has advised against all travel to Baghdad and the five surrounding provinces.
Images from the scene on Friday showed the men, aged in their twenties or thirties, lying dead on the road metres from the burning car.
A year ago, American commanders saw Mosul as a model city in post-war Iraq, but in recent months it has grown increasingly violent.
When US forces launched an assault on the rebel city of Fallujah last month, insurgents immediately launched a wave of attacks in Mosul. Several police stations were overrun and at least three-quarters of the city’s Iraqi police force either deserted or stayed at home.
Since then, more than 150 bodies have been found across the city, some with hands bound behind their backs. Most were Iraqi police officers or national guardsmen shot dead by insurgents in what appears to be an organised campaign. Others appeared to be victims of sectarian violence between Arabs and Kurds.
The continued violence in Mosul suggests that it will be extremely difficult for the Iraqi government to hold peaceful elections in just six weeks in one of the country’s most important cities.
On Friday, the US military appeared to be set to let civilians return to the city of Fallujah, six weeks after the marines launched their assault on the city. Many of the city’s 300 000 residents left in the weeks before the attack and have been living, often in poor conditions, in camps in the desert around the city.
The mayor of Fallujah, Mahmoud Ibrahim, said the return would begin on Friday with residents from one district being allowed to go home, although there was no sign of people returning.
In recent days, the US military has been fighting insurgents who have remained holed up inside Fallujah. The city is still without electricity and water, and many houses are badly damaged.
The US military said on Friday that, after assessing medical clinics, water treatment plants, power plants, roads and houses, the city still needs ”extensive repair”.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi official said Saddam Hussein’s defence minister, General Sultan Hashim Ahmad, will face an investigative hearing next week alongside another senior regime official, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali.
Meanwhile, the US on Friday forgave $4,1-billion in debts owed by Iraq, and urged other nations not part of an international debt-relief agreement to follow suit. — Guardian Unlimited Â