Gunmen Kill Iraqi Policeman in Kirkuk

20/03/2004| IslamWeb

Gunmen have shot dead an Iraqi policeman west of the northern city of Kirkuk hours after US troops arrested a police officer suspected of plotting anti-American attacks, Iraqi police said. Mohammed Omer Abdullah, 42, was killed when three men opened fire with machine guns at a checkpoint on a road outside Kirkuk, prompting soldiers manning the position to return fire, Lieutenant Colonel Rashid Mohammed said. The attack occured at 8:00 am on the Riyaz-Biji road, 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of Kirkuk. Earlier, US troops arrested Colonel Hamid Mutlaq al-Mufraji at his Kirkuk home for alleged links to anti-US attacks that took place in Hawijah, 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of the oil city, a police officer said. The man's wife, lawyer Zaheda Mardan, told AFP that more than 50 American soldiers backed by two armoured troop carriers and six transport vehicles stormed their home after 2:00 am (2300 GMT Friday). "One of the Hummers (transport vehicles) knocked down our front gate and the soldiers entered, searched the house, handcuffed my husband while one of them asked him: 'Why do you go often to Hawija?,'" she said. Also, Iraqi resistance fighters killed two U.S. soldiers in western Iraq, the military said Friday. A third U.S. soldier died of injuries suffered after his armored vehicle rolled 200 feet down an embankment into a river. The attack on the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force occurred Wednesday while it was conducting "security and stability operations" in Anbar province, the military statement said, according to the AP. A 1st Infantry Division soldier died early Friday from wounds suffered after the Bradley fighting vehicle he was traveling in rolled down an embankment into the Tigris River near Beiji, north of Baghdad. **PHOTO CAPTION*** 560 lost : Some 560 pairs of combats boots are laid out to represent the more than 560 US troops killed since the start of the war in Iraq one year ago, at a memorial organized by anti-war groups to protest the first anniversary of the war in Iraq in front of the Federal Building in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. (AFP/Robyn Beck)