Three Iraqi Policemen Killed in Karbala

03/02/2004| IslamWeb

Three Iraqi police officers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, police sources said Tuesday. "Passengers in a red BMW (car) machine-gunned a police pick-up truck around 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) in the town of al-Wind, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Karbala, police spokesman Rahman Mishawi said. "They killed three police officers. Their car blew up because bullets hit the petrol tank," he added. Elsewhere, US troops searching for Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri found nothing after storming his suspected hiding place in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul as two rockets were reportedly fired into the sprawling US military base at Baghdad international airport Tuesday morning, but caused no casualties, an army spokesman said. "Two rockets were fired at 6:15 am (0315 GMT) on Baghdad international airport. There was no counter attack because the point of origin was a populated area" in eastern Baghdad, a spokesman said. It was not immediately clear if the direct hits caused any damage. Dense fog and poor visibility prevented military planes or helicopters from investigating the source of the attack, the source added. Meanwhile, US troops hunting Saddam Hussein's former deputy in Iraq hit another dead end Tuesday when a major operation to storm al-Duri's suspected hiding place in Mosul failed, according to police. Lieutenant Haqqi Ismail Hamadani said there was no sign of Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who has a 10-million-dollar bounty on his head for allegedly masterminding anti-occupation attacks, but two others were arrested. The house in Mosul's western district of Somood belongs to local tribal chief Sheikh Jomaa ad-Dawar, whose two sons were arrested, he said. The Sheikh himself escaped from a back door when he heard the troops coming. For their part, US forces did not confirm the report. The former vice chairman of Iraq's decision-making Revolutionary Command Council under Saddam Hussein is the highest-ranking official of the former regime still at large. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Albanian peacekeeping troop commander Fatmir Lokja (R) hands over on January 29, 2004 the Albanian flag to a relative of Ervin Dervishi, an 'Albanian-American' soldier killed in Iraq while on patrol in the Iraqi town of Baji. (REUTERS/Arben Celi REUTERS)