It’s unclear exactly what is going on south of Baghdad other than utter chaos, but here are two bizarre stories in the news today:
- At least 10 Iraqi policemen were killed in a gun battle with insurgents south of Baghdad on Thursday, police sources said.
The battle, near the town of Salman Pak, about 65 km (40 miles) southeast of Baghdad, continued for several hours. Earlier police sources said at least 65 officers had been wounded.
The fighting was so fierce that police reinforcements were unable to reach many of the wounded or recover the dead, who were left lying in the road.
- The bodies of more than 20 Iraqi drivers and security forces from a convoy of government trucks carrying sugar have been found south of Baghdad, police said.
The drivers had all been burned in their vehicles. Police said they believed the convoy was attacked at least two days ago.
“This morning a police patrol was in the Suwairah region and found about 20 vehicles that were taking sugar to Baghdad. They were all burned,” said a police official.
Suwairah is about 60 kilometres south of Baghdad.
As well as the drivers, two policemen and two soldiers who were protecting the convoy were also killed, the official told AFP.
“The bodies were rotting in the vehicles which indicates the attack was at least two days ago,” he added.
UPDATE: A little more info on these two related incidents is coming out:
BAGHDAD : US helicopters attacked an Iraqi police station overrun by rebels as the Islamic new year started with dozens more deaths at insurgent hands.
At least six police were killed in the rebel assault on the police station, while the rotting bodies of more than 20 drivers from a government food convoy were found in the same region south of the capital, dubbed the triangle of death, and a dozen people were killed in other violence.
The US military sent in helicopters after insurgents overran the police station at Salman Pak, following a siege that lasted several hours.
The rebels had fired anti-tank rockets at the building, police said.
“The insurgents did assume control of the police station temporarily,” a US military spokesman told AFP. “We attacked them with helicopters, which fired missiles, and the insurgents fled.”
The US spokesman said six police and an unknown number of insurgents were killed. An official at Kindi hospital in Baghdad said earlier that 42 police were wounded in the fighting and two had died in hospital.
The bodies of more than 20 truck drivers and four Iraqi police and soldiers were found in the same region. Their convoy had been attacked at least two days earlier, police said, but no one had dared touch them.
The convoy had been taking sugar to Baghdad for food warehouses which distribute monthly rations. They were attacked on the road from Salman Pak to nearby Suwairah.