Nine Iraqi police officers and trainees died on Tuesday when gunmen sprayed bullets into a minivan in which they were travelling south of Baghdad near the town of Mussayab.
Mussayab’s police chief, Major Kadhim Ajmi, said the killers were in a red Opel which drove past the car and shot into it.
Similar attacks have become frequent throughout Iraq. Two policemen were killed in another drive-by shooting yesterday near the northern city of Kirkuk.
The road where the nine died between the towns of Mussayab and Hilla is one of Iraq’s most dangerous. Insurgents ambushed and killed a Dutch and a German engineer near Mussayab last week.
The week before that two US civilians who were working for the occupation authorities were shot with their Iraqi translator on the same road. Two staff working for the TV network CNN were killed in the same area earlier this year.
Many foreigners using the road now wear Arab headdress while they travel. But insurgents are increasingly targeting Iraqis who work directly with the Americans or who join the police or the new civil defence force and the army. Translators working with the authorities have been getting death threats, and several have resigned.
In Basra, where a march of around 500 people demanding jobs at the local customs police turned violent on Monday, British military officials said yesterday that three British soldiers who were seriously injured were in a stable condition. Fourteen troops were hurt, with some engulfed in flames, when demonstrators threw petrol bombs and grenades. British forces fired rubber bullets.
Despite photographs of two soldiers with flames round their heads, none was burned because fire extinguishers were used as part of the troops’ riot control equipment.
Some of the injured troops are expected to be sent back to Britain within a few days. – Guardian Unlimited Â