BAGHDAD, 7 January 2004 — Two French nationals were killed and a third wounded in a drive-by shooting by “terrorists” on Monday near the restive Iraqi town of Fallujah, a US general said yesterday. “They were basically gunned down by some terrorists,” Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, told a press conference.
The French nationals traveling in two sports-utility vehicles stopped when one of their cars broke down around noon Monday 12 kilometers east of Fallujah, Swannack said. While trying to repair the broken-down vehicle, a car sped by and sprayed them with gunfire, Swannack said. He described the French nationals as “contracted individuals” working on Iraq’s electricity reconstruction projects.
In Paris, the Foreign Ministry said they were working for US companies tasked with rebuilding infrastructure. Their identities were not revealed. Sports-utility vehicles are the car of choice for coalition officials, some aid agencies and private businesses.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said the two, who were not identified, worked for US companies involved in reconstruction work in Iraq. Attacks on US military convoys are common around Fallujah, about 50 km west of Baghdad.
An attack near the town on Friday brought down a US Army observation helicopter, killing one pilot. But guerrillas have also targeted foreign aid workers and those employed by companies that have won contracts in Iraq, to highlight their opposition to the occupation.
As the US military has become harder to hit, rebels have attacked such cars on the highways they suspect are associated with US rebuilding projects.
On Nov. 29, seven Spanish intelligence agents traveling in sports-utility vehicles were killed south of Baghdad and two Japanese diplomats were gunned down driving outside Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. The next day two South Korean diplomats were killed in a similar episode on the highway outside Tikrit.
In Iraq’s second city of Basra, at least two people were killed yesterday when police opened fire on stone-throwing soldiers of the former Iraqi Army as they protested to demand payment of salaries. Four people with gunshot wounds were taken to hospital after the incident, witnesses in the southern city said. Two died of their injuries.
And in the central town of Baquba, residents shouted anti-US slogans as they buried two men they said were shot without provocation by American soldiers as they returned home from a coffee house on Monday.
In Basra, hundreds of former soldiers protested in front of three banks after being told their salaries had not been received. They said the last time they were paid was in September, a $150 one-off payment for three months’ wages.
Witnesses said police opened fire after the ex-soldiers began hurling stones at the banks. The protest ended after British army tanks took up positions nearby. A spokesman for British forces in Iraq said he was aware of a demonstration in Basra but had not received reports of shots being fired or any casualties. Basra is part of a southern region of Iraq controlled by British forces, which supported US troops in their invasion of Iraq last March.
