Iraq Guerrillas Target 'Traitors' Working for U.S.

Thursday, August 21, 2003

(5:04 AM ET)

By Andrew Cawthorne

Reuters Writer

The Iraqi was the third interpreter to die since July in five deliberate attacks on locals working with Americans in the three provinces the 4th Infantry Division controls north of Baghdad.

A wounded man is evacuated from the United Nations headquarters after a bomb attack is removed from a military vehicle to a waiting medivac helicopter, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq. A bomb exploded in front of the hotel housing the U.N. headquarters on Tuesday, collapsing the front of the building, the U.S. military said. A hospital reported two people dead and dozens wounded.

Image Credit: Wally Santana -- AP

TIKRIT, Iraq -- Reuters
Guerrillas followed an Iraqi translator home and put a bullet through his head because he worked for U.S. occupiers, the American army said on Thursday.

The killers left a note by the corpse threatening to attack more Iraqi "collaborators" after Tuesday's killing near the town of Samarra, north of the capital Baghdad.

"This was cold-blooded execution. They view all these Iraqis working with us as traitors," said Major Bryan Luke of the U.S. army's 4th Infantry Division.

Iraqi guerrillas have killed 62 U.S. soldiers since major hostilities were declared over on May 1, but are also targeting locals working with the 132,000 American troops here.

Translators are particularly at risk because they are often helping the U.S. soldiers with intelligence about supporters of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

In Tuesday's attack, some half a dozen men followed the interpreter in a car on his way home near Samarra, opening fire into his vehicle from behind with a machinegun, Luke said.

* SHAME AND DISTRUST

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Dan