A ROADSIDE bomb struck a convoy of US security guards yesterday in the southern city of Basra, killing four American contractors.

Attackers ambushed and killed two American contractors working for Blackwater Security Consulting south of the Iraqi capital, the US Embassy and security officials said today.

THE deaths of four employees of a local security company and the shocking way the bodies were treated helped bring the conflict in Iraq closer to home, residents of Moyock, North Carolina, said yesterday.

The four westerners “slaughtered like sheep” in Iraq were private security guards hired by a US company that recruits former special forces soldiers, including ex-members of the SAS.