US troops gun down four rebels
US soldiers in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul shot and killed four rebels suspected of involvement in attacks in the region, the military said today.
The deaths came hours after gunmen fired on a convoy carrying a government minister and the separate killings of a Briton and a Canadian in the region.
The four were killed late last night in a firefight with a US military police patrol, the military said in a statement. Two soldiers were wounded, it said.
The troops had stopped the rebels’ vehicle because it matched the description of one used in an earlier drive-by shooting at US forces in Mosul.
Inside the vehicle, soldiers found assault rifles, a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher and other weapons. The statement said US and Iraqi security forces were investigating to see whether the rebels “were involved in any of the recent attacks”.
The attack earlier yesterday on the convoy of Iraq’s minister of public works, Nisreen Berwari, left the driver and a bodyguard dead and two others injured.
The assault came when Berwari, who was unhurt, was returning to Mosul from a meeting in the city of Dohuk, said Kristi Clemens, said a coalition spokeswoman in Baghdad.
Saro Qader, an official with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, described the attack as an “assassination attempt”. Berwari is a member of the Kurdish party.
The murdered Briton and Canadian were shot dead in Mosul. The pair had been assigned to protect foreign engineers working for General Electric, a coalition spokesman said.
GE is helping rebuild Iraq’s decrepit electrical infrastructure, which has suffered from war, neglect and years of sanctions.
The British and Canadian governments confirmed the deaths, but declined to release the names of the victims.
The killings appeared to be part of a campaign to undermine US-led reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
