Baghdad police chief killed in ambush

Gunmen have shot dead the chief of a central Baghdad police station and at least two other policemen during an ambush.

Insurgents in vehicles fired on the officer's car as he drove to work.

It comes after two days of violence in which a number of people have been killed and dozens of dead bodies found.

Correspondents say the feeling in Iraq is that the tempo of insurgent attacks is rising again after a lull during February in the wake of elections.

On Wednesday a suicide car bomb attack reportedly carried out by a group linked to al-Qaeda killed at least three and injured more than 20 people in the capital.

'Mistaken' attack

The director of a Baghdad hospital was shot dead on his way to work.

Iraq's Planning Minister Mehdi Hafaz also came under fire.

But on Thursday an aide told the Reuters news agency it appeared to be a mistake by foreign security guards, rather than an attack by would-be assassins.

Police also said they had found the bodies of at least 20 people who had been shot dead near the western Iraqi town of Qaim.

One of the dead had an Iraqi police identity card and others may have been national guards, officials said.

It followed the discovery on Tuesday of 15 decapitated bodies on a disused army base south of Baghdad, some of them women and children.

'Fake checkpoint'

In Thursday's attack, the chief of Salhiyah police station, named as Lt-Col Ahmed Abeis, was travelling in the al-Saidiyah neighbourhood of the city when his vehicle was attacked at about 0800 local time (0500 GMT).

Police said gunmen stopped his car, then riddled it with bullets.

One report said insurgents dressed as police and set up a fake checkpoint, before asking the occupants' names and shooting them dead.

AFP news agency reported that an Iraqi army patrol was hit earlier in the day by a roadside bomb.

One vehicle was damaged but there were no casualties, the agency quoted army sources as saying.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4335173.stm

Agencies
Thursday March 10, 2005

At least five policemen, including two high ranking officers, were killed in a series of shootings in Baghdad today.

Colonel Ahmed Abeis, the head of central Baghdad's al-Salihiya police station, was killed when gunmen in two cars opened fire as he drove to work. Four of his guards also died, according to police Captain Talib Thamir.

In a separate attack, Colonel Aiyad Abdul Razaq, the chief deputy of Jisrdiala police station, was gunned down in a south-eastern area of the capital as he travelled to work, CNN reported.

It was not known who had carried out the attacks, or how choreographed they had been. Iraqi security forces, as well as Iraqi politicians, are frequently targeted by insurgents who perceive them to be collaborating with US-led forces in the country.

The shootings followed news yesterday that 41 bodies had been found at two sites in Iraq, one near the Syrian border and the other just south of Baghdad.

Officials said some of the badly decomposed bodies were those of Iraqi soldiers who had been kidnapped and killed by insurgents. Others were civilians, including women and children, who could have been killed because their families were seen as collaborators.

Yesterday, a suicide bomber in a rubbish truck loaded with explosives attempted to blow up a Baghdad hotel used by western contractors. At least four people were killed in the attack.

The US embassy said 30 US contractors were among 40 people injured in the blast. A statement posted on the internet claimed that al-Qaida in Iraq were responsible for attacking the Sadeer hotel, calling it the "hotel of the Jews".

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

Later today, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, was expected to say at a speech to the Fabian Society in London that the sudden stirring of democratic change in the Middle East was due, at least in part, to the invasion of Iraq.

Meanwhile, the investigation into Friday's killing of Nicola Calipari, a senior Italian intelligence agent, by US troops outside Baghdad airport, continued. Mr Calipari was killed as he helped a freed Italian hostage.

The killing has strained relations between Washington and Rome, leading to calls for greater clarity over the rules of engagement of US troops at checkpoints.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, yesterday told the upper house of the Italian parliament that the US had to take responsibility for the killing, and that the agent had informed the proper authorities that he was heading to the airport with a freed hostage.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1434569,00.html