Perilous Times
Gunmen kill 5 Iraqi oil workers, steal payroll
By BARBARA SURK
The Associated Press
Monday, August 23, 2010; 3:47 PM
BAGHDAD -- Gunmen in Iraq ambushed a car carrying five oil refinery
employees transporting the company payroll on Monday, killing them and
fleeing with $300,000 in cash, officials said.
The attack just outside Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit hit the
employees after they had picked up the payroll for the Haditha refinery
in western Iraq from the main refining headquarters in Beiji, 155 miles
(250 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police said.
Three accountants, an engineer and a driver were killed, said an
official with the main refinery in Beiji. Hospital officials in Tikrit
confirmed the death toll.
The incident was the latest in a growing number of criminal attacks
many believe are part of insurgent efforts to raise funds.
On Sunday, gunmen in western Baghdad held up a car carrying five
employees of the Veterinary College outside a bank until they handed
over the college's $600,000 payroll, police officials said. There were
no casualties.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to talk to the media.
Recent bank robberies and attacks on gold jewelers and money changers
across Iraq have raised suspicions al-Qaida-linked insurgents are
seeking to replenish their coffers for attacks.
While violence has subsided significantly in Iraq since 2008, attacks
still occur on a daily basis as the U.S. military ends its combat
mission next week.
Two people were killed in separate attacks around Baghdad on Monday and
more than a dozen were wounded, police said. In of the bombings,
attackers threw a grenade from a car in the eastern neighborhood of New
Baghdad, killing a policeman, a security official said.
In the northern Kazimiyah neighborhood, a bomb attached to a car killed
an Iraqi military intelligence officer.
The violence took place a week before the deadline for all but 50,000
U.S. troops to be out of Iraq - a military drawdown that has raised
fears the country's shaky security situation will worsen.
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Associated Press Writer Saad Abdul-Kadir contributed to this report in
Baghdad.