A 70 year-old Sunni man was shot to death along with his three sons as the family slept in their home on Wednesday in the Hurriya district of Baghdad. According to the man's relatives, gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms opened fire on the four, killing them in their sleep.
According to Iraq's Interior Ministry, some 40 men wearing army uniforms had come to the victims' house in the night and killed them, reported Reuters.
However, a Defense Ministry spokesman denied any involvement of the Iraqi army, saying that the men most likely stole the uniforms in an attempt to tarnish the image of Iraqi security forces.
"Iraqi army uniforms litter the streets and any terrorist can kill and tarnish our image, killing two birds with one stone," he said.
The government also denied Sunni accusations that Iraq's Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry sanctioned Shiite death squads which attack Sunnis.
Meanwhile, Iraqi authorities revealed that the death toll in Tusday's suicide car bombing had risen to 21. The attack, which occured in northern Iraq, also wounded 24 bistanders. The car bomb reportedly exploded after Iraqi police had been lured to the scene after the shooting of a fellow police officer on a busy commercial street in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad. Half of those killed were reportedly Iraqi policemen.
US military sources reported that three American soldiers were also among those killed in the attack.
A mortar shell was also fired on Tuesday at a US ceremony marking the transfer of a former palace of Saddam Hussein's to Iraqi control. No one was injured in the attack as the mortar failed to detonate, though the incident sent many, including the top US commander scrambling for cover, according to the AP.
US officials downplayed the attack, stressing that it failed to interfere with the event.
Spokesman for the US command in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, told reporters, ``This was an ineffectual attempt to stop the progress that goes on every day in Iraq.''
However, Arabic satellite television stations broadcasted images of a US colonel ducking for cover in the attack.
More than 160 Iraqis, most of whom are Shiite Arabs, have been killed in a string of attacks since Friday.
Tuesday's deaths bring the total number of US servicemen killed since the beginning of the US-led invasion into Iraq to at least 2,100.
Also on Tuesday, US Marines announced the end of ``Operation Steel Curtain,'' a major offensive intended to secure the Syria-Iraqi border known to be a transit point for fighters entering Iraq. Ten U.S. Marines and 139 Iraqi were killed during the fighting involved in the operation, which began on November 5.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
