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4 Turkish police officers killed in Mosul ambush

Dec-18-2004 » Filed Under: Iraq News

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Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times

Baghdad -- Masked gunmen in the turbulent Iraqi city of Mosul ambushed a car carrying Turkish police officers Friday, shooting three to death and decapitating a fourth who tried to run away, witnesses said.

In a daytime attack reminiscent of the killing in March of four U.S. security contractors in Fallujah, militants looted the policemen's weapons and set the car ablaze before escaping.

After the attack, residents stood around the burning white Chevrolet Caprice as the bodies lay face down in the street. [...]

For the past six weeks, Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, has exploded in violence, transforming from a relatively quiet region into a battleground between U.S. forces and insurgents.

Since early November, militants have attacked police stations, detonated car bombs and assassinated dozens of local security personnel and civilians. Over the past week, eight bodies were discovered in the area. Several were shot in the head with their hands tied behind their backs. Their bodies were dumped by the side of the road.

The Turkish police officers had been providing security for the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad and likely were returning home, a U.S. official said. Turkish Embassy officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

The ambush, the latest in a string of attacks that have killed nearly 70 Turkish truck drivers and contractors in Iraq this year, came as Turkey was celebrating a long-awaited agreement to discuss admission into the European Union.


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