In widespread attacks, Iraq insurgents kill 26

October 20, 2005|Associated Press

BAGHDAD -- Sunni-led insurgents killed 26 people in Iraq on the opening day of Saddam Hussein's trial, including six Shi'ites who were lined up at a factory and gunned down in front of their fellow workers, police said.

In two other deadly attacks yesterday, six civilians were killed when mortar rounds hit their homes in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, and three election commission officials were shot and killed on the outskirts of the capital in Abu Ghraib, as they drove home after another round of counting ballots from the constitutional referendum, police said.

In addition, the military said two coalition soldiers were killed -- one American, the other British -- in attacks Tuesday night.

Yesterday's worst insurgent attack occurred in a mostly Sunni region south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death.

About nine militants barged into a building materials factory near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, lined up all the workers, and forced the six Shi'ite ones to identify themselves, said police Lieutenant Colonel Khalil Mohammed. The militants then tied up the hands of Shi'ites, shot them to death in front of the other workers, and fled, Mohammed said.

Insurgents opened fire on a police checkpoint near the Hai Al-Adil highway in western Baghdad, killing four policemen and wounding 11, said police Captain Qassim Hassan.

A roadside bomb hit a US Army patrol Tuesday night, killing one soldier and wounding two near Iskandariyah, the military said.