An Iraqi fireman prepares to extinguish a burning vehicle after a car bomb attack in the southern city of Basra, yesterday. The car bomb exploded outside a building housing members of a Shi'ite militia associated with the Iraqi government, killing a child and wounding six. - REUTERS
SAMARRA, (AP):
SUSPECTED INSURGENTS disguised as policemen shot and killed an instructor in front of students at a teacher training college in Iraq yesterday, police said.
The killing occurred about 4:00 p.m. when the attackers broke into Teachers Institute in Samarra city, interrupted a lecture by the teacher in his classroom, dragged him out and shot him in front of nearby students and other teachers, said Captain Layth Mohammed.
The victim was identified as Letif Alwan Mohammed, 40, a Shi'ite instructor with a master's degree in English. Mohammed was married to a nurse who works at a Samarra hospital, and they had three children, the policeman said.
The gunmen attracted little attention when they first entered the school because they were dressed as policemen. Their faces were covered by masks, as policemen sometimes do to conceal their identities and thereby prevent attacks by insurgents when they are off duty.
Samarra, 95 kilometres (60 miles) north of Baghdad, is a city with a population of minority Sunni Arabs and majority Shi'ites, but it is located in an area of Iraq where many Sunni-led insurgent groups operate.
Attacks by militants on schools in Iraq have been rare amid Iraq's relentless violence.
However, suspected insurgents disguised as policemen carried out an even deadlier school attack in Iraq on September 26, when they killed five teachers in the village of Muelha, 48 kilometres (30 miles) south of Baghdad.
