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Gunmen kill five policemen in ambush
By Patrick Quinn
March 10, 2005
From: AAP

GUNMEN have shot dead five policemen in an ambush, including the chief of a central Baghdad police station.

The slayings came a day after authorities 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. He died along with four of his guards.

The insurgents had been dressed in Iraqi police uniforms and had set up a fake police checkpoint, according to media reports.

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They stopped the police officer's car as he was on the way to work at Salhiya police station in the capital.

After asking his name, they shot him along with officers in his car.

One of the insurgents filmed the killings.

Iraqi police and army troops, as well as top Iraqi politicians, are frequently targeted by insurgents because they regarded as collaborators with US forces.

The shootings came after authorities said they had found 41 bodies at two sites.

Officials said some of the badly decomposed corpses were Iraqi soldiers who had been kidnapped and slain by insurgents.

But others were civilians, including women and children who may have been killed because their families were seen as collaborators.

Also yesterday in Baghdad, a suicide bomber in a garbage truck loaded with explosives and at least one gunman shot their way into a car park in attempt to blow up a hotel used by Western contractors.

At least four people, including the attackers and a guard were killed.

The US embassy said in a statement that 30 American contractors were among 40 people wounded in the massive blast.

No Americans were killed.

In an internet statement the al-Qaeda in Iraq group claimed responsibility, saying the Sadeer hotel was a "hotel of the Jews".

Iraq's interim planning minister, Mahdi al-Hafidh, escaped death yesterday after gunmen opened fire on his convoy in the capital. Two of his bodyguards was killed and two others were wounded, he said.

One group of 26 dead were found yesterday in a field near Rumana, a village near the Syrian border.

Each been riddled with bullets – apparently several days earlier.

They were found wearing civilian clothes and one was a woman, al-Karbouli said.

Authorities were led to the find by the stench of decomposing bodies.

South of Baghdad in Latifiya, Iraqi troops made another gruesome discovery on Tuesday, finding 15 headless bodies at an abandoned army base.peThe bodies included 10 men, three women and two children.

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.

Three women were gunned down on Tuesday in a Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood.

- with wire services

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