[A-List] Iraq: the quagmire deepens

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

2 Engineers Killed in Iraq in Latest Attack on Foreigners
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
New York Times: March 17, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 16 - Two European engineers were shot to death in a
drive-by attack on Tuesday, the latest killings in a rash of attacks on
foreign civilians in Iraq.

American military officials said the two hydraulic engineers, one from
Germany, the other from the Netherlands, were driving along a remote stretch
of highway in southern Iraq when their four-wheel-drive vehicle was blasted
by gunfire from a passing car. Two Iraqis with the engineers were also
killed.

The attack came less than 24 hours after a group of American missionaries
were shot in their car, in similar circumstances, in northern Iraq. Three of
the missionaries were killed instantly on Monday. A fourth died Tuesday
morning while being airlifted to a military hospital.

No suspects have been identified in either shooting. But last week
occupation authorities arrested several Iraqi policemen in connection with
the deaths of two American civilians. The two were working for the United
States government and were killed in an ambush along an empty road.

The shootings have set off a spike of fear among foreign workers already on
edge.

"I've been here long enough to know when there's a lull in violence and when
there's a peak, and right now we're at a peak," said Bill L. Evans, a
telecommunications specialist from New Hampshire who has been working in
Iraq since October. "When I'm driving around, my weapon sits on my lap now,
not in my holster."

American commanders have warned that the enemy is changing tactics.
Insurgents have moved away from ramming explosive cars into walls and taking
on convoys. Instead, civilians, foreign and Iraqi, have become the main
targets. The bloodiest attacks of the nearly year-old occupation happened
earlier this month when more than 140 Shiite worshipers were killed during
religious festivities in Baghdad and in the southern city of Karbala.

The top American commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez of the Army,
said at a military ceremony on Tuesday: "Clearly there has been a shift in
the insurgency and the way the extremists are conducting operations. It is
very clear they are going after these targets that might create some splits
within the coalition."

Some splits have already been created. This week, Spain's prime
minister-elect, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, announced that unless the
United Nations takes control of peacekeeping, he will withdraw his country's
1,300 troops by June 30, when American officials plan to hand power back to
the Iraqi people. Honduras, following the lead of Spain, said Tuesday that
it would withdraw its 370 troops by the end of June, according to The
Associated Press.

While the foreign death toll increases, so do drive-by shootings against
Iraqi civilians. On Tuesday, military officials said an Iraqi translator
working for the occupation authorities was killed and two of her relatives
were wounded in an attack in Mosul, in northern Iraq.

Also in Mosul on Tuesday, security officials said three Iraqi policemen were
killed by gunfire from a passing car. Mosul, about 240 miles north of
Baghdad, used to be a recruiting ground for the officer corps of Saddam
Hussein's army. Several judges and other prominent officials have been
assassinated there.

It is also where the four missionaries were attacked Monday. The
Virginia-based Southern Baptist International Mission Board identified them
as Larry T. Elliott, 60, and Jean Dover Elliott, 58, of Cary, N.C.; Karen
Denise Watson, 38, of Bakersfield, Calif.; and David E. McDonnall, 29, of
Rowlett, Tex.

The violence against civilians has spread to many cities and to various
groups. Last week, two Iraqi washerwomen working at a military base in
Basra, in southern Iraq, were killed while they were driving home. Shortly
before that, two sisters who served as translators for American forces were
shot in a vehicle ambush in Baghdad. One died.

American officials said the two European engineers attacked on Tuesday were
driving near Karbala, en route to a project at a nearby lake.

Cpl. Craig Stowell, a spokesman for the occupying authorities, said, "The
group was attacked with small-arms fire while driving, and the deceased
individuals include a German contractor, a Dutch contractor, their Iraqi
driver and an Iraqi guard." Another Iraqi guard was wounded.

There is no precise number of foreign civilians working in Iraq. But
counting members of the occupation government, journalists, contractors, aid
workers and others, they probably exceed 5,000. Security is already a huge
business. Some companies are paying $1,000 a day for bodyguards. And with
$18 billion of reconstruction projects just beginning, the demand will only
increase.

Military officials have provided few answers on how to stop the violence.
Even the most secure areas in Iraq are not safe. The "green zone," the
heavily protected compound in central Baghdad, is frequently shelled. On
Tuesday night, loud explosions were heard.