BAGHDAD, 6 July 2003 — Seven recruits to a US-backed Iraqi police force were killed and dozens wounded in an attack yesterday, a day after a purported tape-recorded message by ousted President Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis not to collaborate with the occupying forces.
Police said the attack happened as about 80 recruits gathered outside a police station on a main street in Ramadi, 100 km west of the capital, after a training session.
Several suspects were arrested and interrogated.
One resident, Kamal Abdel Razzak, a civil servant, said that the police recruits had received threats not to cooperate with the US authorities. Jaadan Mohammad, the chief of police, said he believed Saddam loyalists were behind the attack.
Ramadi is in a mainly Sunni Muslim region north and west of Baghdad which was long a bastion of support for Saddam Hussein.
Late at night, a British TV journalist was shot dead outside the Baghdad museum.
The attacks came a day after US Independence Day celebrations in Iraq were marred by the death of one American soldier and injuries to 16 others in separate attacks.
