Iraq Police Chief Dies in Roadside Ambush (&US soldier dead)

[underpants]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/iraq

59 minutes ago

FALLUJAH, Iraq - The police chief in the dangerous "Sunni Triangle" town of Khaldiya was killed in a roadside ambush as he was returning to his home in Fallujah, scene of rising criminal violence and guerrilla resistance to the American occupation of Iraq (news - web sites).

The Monday afternoon attack was sure to further complicate U.S. efforts to build local police and militia structures to take over security in the region, where support for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) remains strong.

...ambushed by three men wearing red-and-white checked Arab headdresses for masks on the outskirts of Fallujah as he was driving home. His driver and bodyguard were wounded in the attack, police said. Ali, a former Iraqi army officer, had been police chief for two months. ..."The three attackers opened fire with machine guns, shot one of the tires of the chief's car and then approached the vehicle and shot him at least 25 times," said his driver..."I am sure the killing of the colonel was the work of thieves,"

US Soldier diesFrom the same article
In central Baghdad, a 1st Armored Division soldier died of his wounds in a military field hospital Monday after a pre-dawn rocket-propelled attack on his patrol, the second U.S. casualty in as many days.


He was the 157th American soldier to die in Iraq since President Bush (news - web sites) declared an end to major combat on May 1. In heavy fighting before that date 138 soldiers lost their lives.

[MrPrax]

1. Smoke and Fire here...

A hail of bullets, a trail of dead, and a mystery the US is in no hurry to resolve
by Robert Fisk (The Independent)
"Since the Americans will not reveal the truth, let Ahmed Mohamed, whose 28-year-old brother, Walid, was one of the policemen who gave chase, tell his story.

"We have been told that the BMW opened fire on the mayor's office at 12.30am. The police chased them in two vehicles, a Nissan pick-up and a Honda car and they set off down the old Kandar road towards Baghdad.

"But the Americans were there in the darkness, outside the Jordanian Hospital, to ambush cars on the road. They let the BMW through, then fired at the police cars."
...
"Here are the words of Ahmed, whose brother Sabah was a policeman caught in the ambush and taken away by the Americans - alive or dead, he doesn't know - and who turned up to examine the blood and cartridge cases yesterday. "The Americans were forced to leave Fallujah after much fighting following their killing of 16 demonstrators in April. They were forced to hire a Fallujah police force. But they wanted to return to Fallujah so they arranged the ambush. The BMW 'gunmen' were Americans who were supposed to show there was no security in Fallujah - so the Americans could return. Our police kept crying out: 'We are the police - we are the police'. And the Americans went on shooting."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4693.htm

Also...
Iraqi Leader Says U.S. Troops Mistreat Civilians
Mon September 15, 2003 09:15 AM ET
By Daniel Flynn

MADRID (Reuters) - A member of Iraq's Governing Council Monday accused U.S. troops of regularly mistreating Iraqi civilians so that the population had come to regard American forces as an army of occupation.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3444948

NOW which "attack" was sure to further complicate U.S. efforts to build local police and militia structures??

[lindashaw]

2. An important sidebar to this piece...

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq - U.S. forces are holding six people who claim to be Americans and two who say they are British for alleged attacks against coalition troops in Iraq (news - web sites), an American general said Tuesday. It was the first time the military reported holding Westerners in the attacks.

snip...

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who is in charge of coalition detention centers in Iraq, said the men claiming to be Americans and British are suspected of involvement in guerrilla attacks. They were not identified.


The eight alleged Westerners are being held 12 miles west of Baghdad at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, where Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) imprisoned many political opponents.