Iraq Watch: April 14, 2006

Iraqi Police Convoy Ambushed

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In an elaborate scheme, insurgents ambuscaded a large Iraqi police convoy late Thursday leaving dozens either dead or missing.

The police officers, from the southern Shiite holy city of Najaf, were heading south from the insurgent-rife town of Taji where they had picked up new police vehicles when they came under attack according to the Washington Post.

The convoy, consisting of some 50-60 vehicles, was forced to take a detour onto rural back roads after they were diverted by U.S. troops who discovered a roadside bomb on the areas main thoroughfare – presumably planted by militants as part of the attack.

Soon after being diverted, the police were ambushed near the village of Tarmiya by a swath of insurgents who had staked out in the areas palm groves and farmhouses. The New York Times reports that the local mosque was blaring the "call for jihad" from its speakers.

The guerillas used an array of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, and roadside bombs, as part of their assault.

Casualty counts from the incident varied widely. The AP put the toll at six dead, 10 wounded, and dozens missing. The Washington Post reported that at least 17 died in the firefight while the New York Times said nine Iraqi police were killed, 18 were wounded, and 34 were missing.

Elsewhere, seven employees of a construction company in the southern, port-city of Basra were abducted and executed late Thursday according to the BBC.

Also in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, a suicide car bomber attacked a British military patrol Friday killing at least two civilians and wounding four British soldiers.