Insurgents behead victim in attack on car

INSURGENTS attacked a car carrying at least three Westerners in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday, killing them and their Iraqi driver and cutting off the head of one of the victims, local witnesses said.

The white, American-made sedan was attacked while driving through western Mosul and set on fire, the witnesses said.

A photographer for Reuters saw three bodies lying on the street close to the blazing vehicle, all apparently Westerners.

One of them had been beheaded.

A fourth person, apparently an Arab, could be seen lying near the burning wreckage, his body partly consumed by flames.

Witnesses said one of the Western men, all of whom looked to be in their 20s and 30s and were dressed in jeans and windbreaker tops, was briefly taken hostage by the insurgents.

When he tried to flee they decapitated him, leaving the head lying near his body on the street.

The identities of the victims was not clear.

The US military was not immediately reachable for comment on the attack.

Mosul has experienced a surge in violence since the middle of last month when groups of guerrillas overran around a dozen police stations, looted them of weapons and then burned or blew them up.

There have been nearly daily attacks against US and Iraqi security forces in the city since then and US troops have stepped up operations to try to restore order. Since November 10, when the uprising began, more than 150 bodies have been found abandoned on the streets of the city, many of them members of the Iraqi National Guard and other security forces, but also many civilians.

It is not clear who is behind the killings or what the motive is, though some appear to be due to ethnic tensions between Arabs and Kurds.

Elsewhere, a US Marine was killed in action while conducting security and stabilisation operations in the volatile Anbar province west of Baghdad, the military said. More details were not released and the Marine’s identity was withheld pending notification of relatives.

Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein’s defence minister, who surrendered to American forces last year, will appear alongside another notorious general - known as Chemical Ali - when investigative trials open next week.

General Sultan Hashim Ahmad, who gave himself up in September 2003 at a coalition military base in Mosul, will be among the first two to face the hearings, which interim Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announced will commence next week.

An Iraqi government official said that Saddam’s notorious former right-hand man, Ali Hassan al-Majid - known as Chemical Ali for his use of chemical weapons - would head the list of 11 top regime members to appear at the initial investigative court hearings.

“Chemical Ali and Sultan will be the first to face the hearings,” the official, who is familiar with the proceedings, said.

Mr Allawi’s government has made a new push to start the trials ahead of January 30 elections, in which campaigning has started amid continued insurgent violence.