Five troops die in Iraq attack

2004-03-31 12:03

Fallujah, Iraq - At least seven people, including five soldiers of the US-led coalition, were killed in separate attacks in western Iraq on Wednesday as students staged a protest against alleged police brutality in the central town of Najaf.

Five coalition soldiers died when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in al-Anbar province west of Baghdad, a military coalition spokesperson said, without giving further details.

It was thought to be the worst single incident involving coalition troops since a US military helicopter was downed near the flashpoint town of Fallujah, also in al-Anbar, on January 8, killing all nine aboard.

In Fallujah on Wednesday gunmen opened fire on two four-wheel-drive cars, killing at least some of the occupants and setting the vehicles ablaze, according to local police.

Charred bodies

A correspondent saw two charred bodies lying on the ground near the two vehicles.

Witness Hammadi al-Issawi, 28, said a third vehicle within the convoy evacuated more casualties, some badly burnt.

In Baaquba, north of Baghdad, four policemen and six civilians were wounded in a car bomb explosion that shook residents awake early on Wednesday, police said.

In the northern city of Mosul, mortar fire targeted a US military base during the night, according to an officer of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) paramilitary forces.

There was no confirmation from the US military.

And in the central Shiite holy city of Najaf, about 200 students demonstrated outside city hall to protest against recent police "repressive acts".

On Tuesday, two policemen, a Spanish soldier and two demonstrators were hurt and 30 people arrested in Najaf when hundreds of jobless protesters attacked the governor's office and police cars with rocks, police said.

A defence ministry spokesman in Madrid however denied that any Spanish soldier had been wounded.

Violence flares

As violence continued to flare across the country, a visiting UN team of experts pressed on with talks with Iraqi leaders, politicians and government officials on the process for handing over sovereignty to the Iraqis.

And in a sign of the growing instability that threatens Iraq's reconstruction, the US State Department, through its Consular Office in Baghdad, said on Tuesday that it could not guarantee security of US citizens at the April 5-8 Destination Baghdad Expo trade fair.

"Given the current security situation in Iraq, it is not possible to guarantee the safety of US citizens attending this event," the office said in a notice to Americans.

"US citizens are also reminded that April 9 is the first anniversary of the US military entry to Baghdad."

- AFP