Iraq: Women no longer safe
2005-03-10 10:35
Baghdad - Women are no longer safe even in traditionally minded Iraq. Decapitated bodies of women have begun turning up in recent weeks, a note with the word "collaborator" usually pinned to their chests.
On Wednesday, gunmen shot dead five policemen in a drive-by shooting in the Iraqi capital, one day after authorities said they'd found dozens of corpses - some bullet-riddled, others beheaded - at two sites in the insurgent-wracked country.
Gunmen in two cars opened fire on a vehicle carrying Colonel Ahmed Abeis, the head of a police station in central Baghdad, killing him and four of his guards, said police Captain Talib Thamir.
It was not known who shot the men, but Iraqi police and army troops, as well as top Iraqi politicians, are frequently targeted by insurgents because they see them as working with United States forces.
Hotel bombing
The shootings came after authorities announced on Wednesday they'd found 41 bodies at two sites in Iraq. Officials said some of the badly decomposed corpses are Iraqi soldiers who were kidnapped and slain by insurgents. But others are civilians, including women and children who may have been killed because their families were seen as collaborators.
Also on Wednesday in Baghdad, a suicide bomber in a garbage truck loaded with explosives and at least one gunman shot their way into a parking lot in a daring attempt at dawn to blow up a hotel used by Western contractors. At least four people, including the attacks and a guard were killed.
The US Embassy said in a statement that 30 American contractors were among 40 people injured in the massive blast. In an internet statement, al-Qaeda in Iraq purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the Sadeer hotel, calling it the "hotel of the Jews."
Iraq's interim planning minister, Mahdi al-Hafidh, escaped death on Wednesday after gunmen opened fire on his convoy in the capital.
The director general of the Shiite Endowment, Qataa Abdul Nabi, was killed late on Tuesday as he drove home. He was the second high-ranking member of the Endowment to be killed in a week.
Two other car bombings were also reported.
Elsewhere, guerrillas struck a police patrol with a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra, killing two policeman and wounding three more.
In northern Kirkuk, a woman identified as Nawal Mohammed, who worked with US forces, was killed in a drive-by shooting.
One group of 26 dead were found late on Tuesday in a field near Rumana, a village east of Qaim, near the Syrian border.
Each of the bodies had been riddled with bullets - apparently several days earlier.
South of Baghdad in Latifiya, Iraqi troops on Tuesday made another gruesome discovery, finding 15 headless bodies in a building inside an abandoned former army base.
The bodies included 10 men, three women and two children.
- AP