Gunmen 'dressed as women'

2007-07-28 21:48

Kirkuk, Iraq - Insurgents dressed as women attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint west of the northern oil hub of Kirkuk on Saturday killing at least three soldiers, security officials said.

In a separate incident, also west of Kirkuk, two more Iraqi army soldiers were killed and another two wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb, according to Iraqi army Major Sherzad Baziani.

Fighting began when several gunmen wearing Saudi-style black veils opened fire on the checkpoint, killing three soldiers and wounding a fourth, Captain Mohammed Abdullah said.

In the gunbattle that ensued the soldiers killed and wounded several of the attackers, destroying three cars and seizing another, he said, but without specifying how many militants were killed or wounded.

The soldiers then raided a nearby village, capturing 14 alleged militants connected to the attack. In a separate raid in another village west of Kirkuk the army captured four alleged al-Qaeda insurgents.

All five of those killed were Kurdish soldiers charged with guarding the country's oil infrastructure running along a corridor of Sunni farming towns west of Kirkuk, which sits atop some of Iraq's largest reserves.

The fate of the city is the subject of a dispute between its Kurdish population, which would like to see it join the Kurds' autonomous northern territory, and its Arab and Turkmen communities who fear Kurdish domination.

- AFP