Iraqi mob kills and mutilates US civilians

Jubilant Iraqis yanked the bodies of four American contractors from their burning jeeps yesterday, dragged the charred corpses through the streets, and hung two of them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.

Elsewhere, five US soldiers died in a roadside bombing nearby on one of the bloodiest days this year for the coalition governing Iraq.

The brutal treatment of the four corpses came after they were killed in a rebel attack on their four-wheel-drive vehicles in the Sunni Triangle city of Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad. The US State Department confirmed all four men were American citizens.

"It is offensive, it is despicable the way these individuals have been treated," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "We hope everybody acts responsibly in their coverage of it."

Fallujah has been the scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict since the US occupation began.

It was reminiscent of the 1993 scene in Somalia, when a mob dragged the corpses of US soldiers through Mogadishu, eventually leading to the withdrawal of US troops from the African nation.

In Baghdad, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said the victims were contractors working with the coalition. He did not say what they were doing in Fallujah.

All four were men, said Sergeant Lorraine Hill, a coalition spokeswoman.

Chanting "Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans", residents cheered after the grisly assault on two civilian vehicles, which left both in flames. Others chanted: "We sacrifice our blood and souls for Islam."

TV footage showed one man beating a charred corpse with a metal pole. Others tied a yellow rope to a body, hooked it to a car and dragged it down the main street.

Two blackened and mangled corpses were hung from a green iron bridge across the Euphrates.

"The people of Fallujah hanged some of the bodies on the old bridge like slaughtered sheep," said witness Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. Some of the corpses were dismembered, he said.

Beneath the bodies, a man held a printed sign with a skull and crossbones and the phrase "Fallujah is the cemetery for Americans".

AP Television News showed the charred remains of three dead contractors. Some were wearing flak jackets, said resident Safa Mohammedi.

One resident displayed what appeared to be dog tags taken from one body. Residents also said there were weapons in the targeted cars. APTN showed one American passport near a body and a US Defence Department identity card belonging to another man.

US contractors in Iraq have been hiring former US and British special forces soldiers as bodyguards, paying them up to €7,500 a week. It was not immediately known if the dead were contractors or guards.

Witnesses said both jeeps were attacked with small arms fire and grenades.

Hours after the attack, the city was quiet. No US troops or Iraqi police were seen in the area.

Fallujah is in the "Sunni Triangle", where support for Saddam Hussein was strong and rebels often carry out attacks on US forces.

Five US troops died when their military vehicle ran over a bomb in a separate incident at Malahma, 12 miles to the north-west.

Defence officials said the soldiers were from the Army's 1st Infantry Division and were in an M-113 armoured personnel carrier.

North-east of Baghdad, in the city of Baqouba, a suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car he was near a convoy of government vehicles, wounding 14 Iraqis and killing himself.

The convoy is normally used to transport the Diala provincial governor, Abdullah al-Joubori, but he was elsewhere at the time, said police Colonel Ali Hossein.