BAGHDAD, 24 March 2004 — Insurgents targeted Iraq’s new police force yesterday as the authorities freed hundreds of prisoners.
Gunmen killed 10 Iraqi police trainees yesterday as they headed to work in the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad.
Gunmen in a car opened fire on the policemen’s minibus before escaping, said Mohammed Kadhem. Ten policemen were killed and four wounded, including one in serious condition, according to one of the wounded, Capt. Walaa Mezher Abed.
Local officials said the minibus came under fire shortly after leaving the nearby town of Mussayab on its way to Hilla.
There have been several drive-by shootings in the Hilla area in recent weeks, and drive-by attacks have been on the increase throughout the country.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, gunmen killed two policemen and wounded two others near their station. The slain twin brothers were shot by assailants in a car. The attack occurred as the police parked their car in a main square and worshipers left a nearby mosque.
A US military officer said hundreds of people, many held for several months after being picked up by US-led forces, were released from prisons.
“We no longer consider them a security threat to the coalition,” said Col. Jill Morgenthaler.
She said a total of 494 prisoners, picked up in security operations, were freed, 272 of them from Abu Ghraib prison on the western edge of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib is one of the largest US-run prisons in Iraq and was notorious under former President Saddam Hussein.
