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IRAQIS beheaded a
foreigner in public yesterday in a daylight
massacre.
The man - believed to be European - died after
militants opened fire on a white, American-made
sedan in the rebel city of Mosul.
Four occupants were shot and dragged out of the car
before one of them tried to flee.
Attackers chased the man and swiftly beheaded him by
the side of the road, leaving his body on display. A
photographer saw four bodies lying in the street
close to the burning vehicle.
One man appeared to be Turkish, another an Arab and
two European - one of whom had been decapitated.
The foreigners appeared to be in their 20s and 30s,
witnesses said.
The killings came as the US military said it would
allow some residents to return to Fallujah, six
weeks after an offensive was launched.
In Mosul, the car was driving through a violent
western district when it was hit by assault rifle
fire.
The vehicle was set ablaze and a small crowd
gathered around the wreckage.
It echoed the horror of an attack in Fallujah last
April, when insurgents torched a vehicle carrying
four American security guards.
Then, they dragged their burned bodies through the
streets and strung a carcass from a bridge.
And it brought back sickening memories of Brit Ken
Bigley's beheading in October. That killing was
broadcast on the internet.
The identities of yesterday's victims were not
clear, but the witnesses said they were carrying
small automatic weapons.
Mosul, near the border with Turkey, has seen a surge
in violence since the Fallujah battle started on
November 8.
US commanders say many of the insurgent leaders
holed up in Fallujah probably fled before the
assault and may have ended up in Mosul.
The city is the third largest in Iraq.
Gangs of guerrillas overran at least a dozen police
stations there on November 10. They looted weapons
and more than 150 bodies have been found in the city
since.
Many of the dead were members of the Iraqi National
Guard and other security forces, but there were also
many civilians.
It is not clear who is behind the killings or what
the motive is, though some appear to be due to
Arab-Kurd ethnic tensions.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk
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