Killings and kidnapping as Baghdad convoy ambushed

Gunmen ambushed a convoy of Westerners on a highway in north Baghdad tonight, killing at least two people with a number of others believed to have been abducted, police and witnesses said.

The attack in Baghdad’s Shoala district occurred near dusk as three sport utility vehicles were travelling south towards the centre of the capital.

Gunmen in a vehicle heading north opened fire, sending three of the four SUVs careering off the road and into barricades.

Crowds of Iraqi youths danced and cheered as rescuers dragged a bloodied body, wearing a flak vest, from the driver’s seat of one of the vehicles. Others looted tyres and set two vehicles on fire.

There were conflicting reports of what happened after the first volley of shots.

Some witnesses and a police officer said the attackers emerged from the oncoming cars, dragged five or six “Western-looking” people from the vehicles and hauled them away.

However, two other witnesses, Khalid Zaalan, 22, and Qays Hussein (correct), 15, said that after a gunbattle, armed Western men jumped from the wrecked SUVs, commandeered a passing car at gunpoint and escaped.

A preliminary report from the 1st Cavalry Division, responsible for security in Baghdad, said an Iraqi security guard was killed and another was wounded. The report made no mention of either missing personnel or an escape.

A family of three was caught in the crossfire, according to Dr Mazhar Abdullah of the nearby al-Sadr hospital. A man was killed and his six-months-pregnant wife was seriously injured, the doctor said.