11 killed in Iraq attacks

The attack on the laundry workers took place in Fallujah when the nine women were being driven to work, said Khajiq Serkis, the driver who was shot in the leg. He said that he was part of a three-car convoy being chased by the four attackers in a Opel sedan, their faces covered by scarves. Serkis said his minibus lagged behind and the gunmen shot the tires before firing indiscriminately at the occupants. All the victims were Armenian or Assyrian Christians.

Elsewhere, two US soldiers were killed and another wounded during a rocket and mortar barrage late on Wednesday on an American camp near Baqouba, north-east of Baghdad. US troops returned fire, damaging a house, witnesses said.

Maj Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, said that insurgents fired mortars and rockets at a US military encampment, killing the two soldiers and critically wounding another.

The three soldiers were standing outside the tactical operations centre when the barrage hit, she said. US forces launched a counterattack but there was no indication that the insurgents were hit, she said. In Madrid, the Spanish Defence Ministry said the security chief for Spanish troops in Iraq was shot and seriously wounded during a raid against suspected insurgents south of Diwaniyah. Civil Guard commander Gonzalo Perez Garcia was rushed to a US military hospital in Baghdad, where he was reported in critical condition.

Also, the 23-year-old son of a former senior official from Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party was slain by an unidentified attacker in Basra.North of Fallujah, "unknown attackers in a car fired at a police patrol vehicle, killing Lieutenant Hakam Hilmi and 2nd Lieutenant Ibrahim Khaled instantly," police Captain Walid Ismail told AFP. Three other policemen travelling in the convoy were wounded in a blaze of gunfire, he added. "A civilian whose identity is not yet known was also killed," Ismail said.

Around 4:30 pm, a bomb exploded in the centre of Fallujah, witnesses said, leaving at least two US soldiers wounded. The US military had no immediate confirmation. In the north, an Iraqi man was killed and three others wounded, one seriously, when a roadside bomb exploded in Kirkuk, police said. The bomb went off on the road from Kirkuk to Mosul.

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=52557

TIKRIT: Two US soldiers, two Iraqi policemen and six civilians, including four women working for the US military, were killed in separate attacks near Baghdad, police and military sources said yesterday.

The upsurge of violence in the heartland of supporters of ousted president Saddam Hussein came as Iraq's majority Shi'ites stepped up pressure for direct elections, which would give them a dominant role in the new Iraq.

In southern Iraq, Major Gonzalo Perez Garcia, security chief of the Spanish-Latin American Plus Ultra brigade in the US-led coalition, was shot in the head and seriously wounded during a raid on a home in Hamsa, 40km from Diwaniyah, the Spanish defence ministry said.

An Iraqi policeman was also hurt, a spokesman for the Polish-led multinational division said.

The Americans were killed and a third critically wounded by mortar fire on the edge of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, late on Wednesday, spokeswoman Major Josslyn Aberle said.

A total of 234 US troops have now been killed in the war with rebels since US President George W. Bush declared fighting over on May 1.

Yesterday, north of Fallujah, "unknown attackers in a car fired at a police patrol vehicle, killing Lieutenant Hakam Hilmi and 2nd Lieutenant Ibrahim Khaled instantly", police Captain Walid Ismail said.

Three other policemen travelling in the convoy were wounded in a blaze of gunfire, he added.

"A civilian whose identity is not yet known was also killed," Ismail said.

West of Baghdad, four Iraqi Christian women were killed as they were driven to work at a US military base. Five others and the driver were wounded, survivors said.

"We were nine women and the driver ... We were going, as every day, to the Habbaniyah base, where we work in the laundry," said Maggi Aziz, 49, wounded in the leg, shoulder and head.

"Suddenly, four masked men machine-gunned our minibus and four women died," said the woman from her hospital bed in Ramadi.

The driver, Rafic Ratchik Sarkis, who was hurt in the leg, said that two earlier buses had passed without incident, but that he was running late.

The US military later confirmed the deaths of three women in the area but had no further details.

Around 4:30 pm, a bomb exploded in the centre of Fallujah, witnesses said, leaving at least two US soldiers wounded.

The US military had no immediate confirmation.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=72347&Sn=WORL

Iraqi Rebels Kill Women, US Soldiers
Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News Staff

BAGHDAD, 23 January 2004 — Iraqi guerrillas killed nine people, including two US soldiers, in stepped up attacks in the so-called Sunni triangle yesterday even as the American commander responsible for security in the region claimed that the backbone of the insurgency has been broken.

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http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=38451&d=23&m=1&y=2004

Violence sweeps across Iraq

Seven Iraqis have been killed in a wave of attacks across Iraq in the last 24 hours as US military officials report that two soldiers have also been killed.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8D4028BA-FA15-4069-A9F0-CCD49B09B5D4.htm