Mutilated foreigners 'strung up like sheep' in Iraq

Jubilant Iraqis yanked the bodies of four foreign contractors – at least one an American – out of their burning cars today, dragged the charred corpses through the streets, and hung two of them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.

Elsewhere, five American 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 4X4 vehicles in the Sunni Triangle city of Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad.

The city has been the scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict since the beginning of the American occupation a year ago.

It was reminiscent of the 1993 scene in Somalia, when a mob dragged the corpse of a US soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the American withdrawal 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.”

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 identification card belonging to another man.

US contractors in Iraq have been hiring former US and British special forces soldiers as bodyguards with contracts worth up to €7,500 a week.

It was not immediately known if the dead were contractors or guards.

Witnesses said the two vehicles were attacked with small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.

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

Fallujah is in the so-called Sunni Triangle, where support for Saddam Hussein was strong and rebels often carry out attacks against American forces.

Five American troops died when their military vehicle ran over a bomb in a separate incident at Malahma, 12 miles to the north-west, among the reed-lined roads through some of Iraq’s richest farmland.

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 blew up explosives in his car when he was near a convoy of government vehicles, wounding 14 Iraqis and killing himself.

The attacked 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.

The latest violence came two days after Carina Perelli, the head of a UN electoral team, said better security is vital if Iraq wants to hold elections by a January 31 deadline. The polls are scheduled to follow a June 30 transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.