IRAQ: GUNMEN KILL FOUR IRAQI POLICE OFFICERS AND FIVE POLICE TRAINEES IN DRIVE-BY SHOOTING

Record ID: 230524

  • Title: IRAQ: GUNMEN KILL FOUR IRAQI POLICE OFFICERS AND FIVE POLICE TRAINEES IN DRIVE-BY SHOOTING
  • Date: 24th March 2004
  • Summary: (W5) HILLA, IRAQ (MARCH 23, 2004)(REUTERS) 1. MV MINIBUS RIDDLED WITH BULLETS; SCU SMASHED WINDOW OF MINIBUS; SCU BULLET HOLE ON MINIBUS BODY; SCU BULLET HOLES ON MINIBUS; SCU PIECES OF GLASS ON SEAT; SCU BLOOD ON SEATS (7 SHOTS) 0.29 2. SLV ROAD LEADING TO HILLA WHERE THE MINIBUS ATTACKED; SCU BLOOD STAINS 0.35 (W5)KERBALA, IRAQ (MARCH 23, 2004)(REUTERS) 3. SLV PROTESTERS CARRYING FLAGS AND BANNERS; SLV EMPTY COFFIN SYMBOLISING SHEIKH YASSIN'S COFFIN; SCU ISRAELI FLAG UNDER FEET OF PEOPLE (3 SHOTS) 0.49 4. SLV PROTESTERS CARRYING FLAGS; SLV PROTESTERS CARRYING COFFIN SHOUTING "DEATH TO ISRAEL" (4 SHOTS) 1.32 5. SLV DEMONSTRATORS IN FRONT OF IMAM ABBAS SHRINE 1.37 6. MV PROTESTERS BURNING ISRAELI FLAG; SCU BURNING ISRAELI FLAG 1.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th April 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HILLA AND KERBALA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVADPQWDV4BIGVHS18HWSZXC69TH
  • Story Text: Gunmen killed four Iraqi police officers and five
    police trainees in a drive-by shooting.

    Unidentified assailants fired at a minibus carrying
    police officers and cadets on Tuesday (March 23, 2004), killing
    nine and injuring three others
    Mussayab police chief Major Kadhim Ajmi told Reuters
    the police were killed at around 7.30 Tuesday morning
    (0430 GMT),"
    He says they were shot by unknown attackers driving a
    red Opel.

    Local officials said the minibus was attacked shortly
    after leaving the town of Mussayab on its way to Hilla,
    about 100 km
    (62 miles) south of Baghdad. Staff at Mussayab General
    Hospital said three other passengers were wounded
    The yellow minibus was riddled with bullet holes and
    seats splattered with blood.

    Police have often been targeted by insurgents who
    accuse them of cooperating too closely with the U.S.-led
    occupiers. Two
    policemen were killed in another drive-by shooting on
    Tuesday, near the northern city of Kirkuk.

    There have been several drive-by shootings in the Hilla
    area in recent weeks, and drive-by attacks have been on the
    increase
    throughout the country. On March 16 guerrillas ambushed and
    killed a Dutch and a German engineer near Mussayab. The
    week before that, two U.S. civilians seconded from the
    defence department and their Iraqi translator were shot
    dead on another road nearby.

    In the Shi'ite city of Kerbala Tuesday, around one
    thousand people took to the streets to demonstrate against
    the killing by Israel of the leader of the Islamic
    militant group Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

    The protesters marched in the centre of the city,
    carrying an empty coffin adorned with flowers and the
    Palestinian flag in a symbolic funeral for the slain leader.

    They burned Israeli flags and carried banners
    denouncing the killing of Sheikh Yassin.

    Ending their protest, the demonstrators said prayers
    for Sheikh Yassin at Imam Hussein Shrine at the city.


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