Gunmen target women in Iraq ambush

Three Iraqi women and a driver working for coalition forces were gunned down as they drove through the frequently violent town of Fallujah.

The women worked as cleaners at a nearby US military base, policeman Taha al-Falahi said. He said another woman in the car was injured in last night’s attack.

Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad is in the so-called Sunni Triangle stronghold of the supporters of Saddam Hussein.

Former Baath Party members and other Saddam supporters have been carrying out a guerrilla war against coalition forces, often targeting Iraqi civilians in a bid to prevent them from co-operating with the United States.

The violence has diminished in intensity since the capture of Saddam on December 13.

Wednesday’s attack was believed to be the first time that women have been specifically targeted, although many have been killed in suicide car bombings and roadside bombs.

In British controlled Basra, a gunman shot and killed Ghassan Adnan, a 23-year-old student and the son of a fugitive former member of Saddam’s Baath party outside his college today, police said.

Adnan was shot three times on a busy road in front of the Basra Teachers’ Institute, where he was scheduled to take an exam, said Police Lieutenant Ali Mohammed.

Adnan was the son of Adnan Jassim, a former senior security official in Basra who has been on the run since last April.