World

6 Foreign Civilians Killed In Iraq

March 17, 2004 / 7:20 AM EST / CBS/AP

In separate attacks on Tuesday, four Americans, three Iraqis and two Europeans were killed, increasing the toll of civilian workers slain by insurgents.

Four U.S. missionaries died in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday. A fifth American was being treated at a U.S. military hospital.

Hours later, reports emerged that two German civilians and two Iraqis, including a driver and a policeman, were killed in an ambush south of Baghdad.

Two Iraqi police were also wounded in the attack near the town of Mussayab, 45 miles south of Baghdad, said Dr. Jamal Kadhim, head of the emergency department at Mussayab General Hospital.

In Mosul, an Iraqi woman whose sister works for the U.S. military was slain in a drive-by shooting that also wounded the woman's brother and father, police in the city said. Police said the slain woman, a pharmacist, may have been confused with her sister who works as a translator on a U.S. Army base in Mosul.

Last week, two American civilians working for the Coalition Provisional Authority and their Iraqi interpreter were slain in an ambush. Two Iraqis working as interpreters for the British were killed in a separate attack.

A U.S. commander says the attacks are part of a strategy to divide the occupation forces.

"Clearly there has been a shift in the insurgency and the way the extremists are conducting operations," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. "It is very clear they are going after these targets that might create some splits within the coalition."

In other developments:

The U.S. military said it was investigating a reported incident in which five Iraqis from the same family were killed, allegedly by American troops.

Officials and families whose loved ones were killed when Saddam Hussein's forces attacked Halabja with chemical weapons marked the assault's 16th anniversary, the first since the toppling of the dictator.

In the southern city of Kufa, 1,000 college students protested the signing of Iraq's recently approved interim constitution. The demonstrators decried Iraqi Governing Council members who approved the document as "U.S. agents" and burned American, British and Israeli flags.

A 28-year-old U.S. soldier declared the invasion "an oil-driven war" and said he won't return to the Middle East and fight. His attorney said he believes Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia is the first soldier to turn himself in after refusing to return to Iraq.

Most people of Iraq have high hopes for the future and say their lives are going well, but they have mixed feelings about the U.S.-led invasion of their country, according to a nationwide poll of Iraqis.

In Spain, the newly elected prime minister promised to withdraw the country's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June 30 unless the United Nations assumes control of peacekeeping. His election followed a bombing in Madrid that killed 200.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the decision by Spain's new leader to pull troops from Iraq is a setback for the United States.

"Obviously one would prefer that more countries would come in rather than a country leave," he said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"The task will get done, it'll get done, and it'll get done well and progress has been made," he said. "And my guess is, you'll find other countries reacting just the opposite. You'll find countries stepping forward and saying, 'Well, if that's what that country's going to do, we'll do just the opposite. We'll add some troops'."

Australia urged Spain not to withdraw, saying doing so would be seen by some as a "victory" for terrorists. Poland said it has no extra troops to send to Iraq if Spain makes good on its threat. Japan said that its troops will stay the course.

Lt. Col. Joseph Piek, a spokesman for American forces in Mosul, said the five missionaries were traveling in a car on the eastern side of the city when they were ambushed.

The Virginia-based Southern Baptist International Mission Board identified the four dead as Larry T. Elliott, 60, and Jean Dover Elliott, 58, of Cary, North Carolina; Karen Denise Watson, 38, of Bakersfield, California; and David E. McDonnall, 28, of Rowlett, Texas.

McDonnall died Tuesday morning on a helicopter that was transporting him to a military hospital in Baghdad after four U.S. military surgeons worked for six hours to save his life, the mission board said.

McDonnall's wife, Carrie Taylor McDonnall, 26, of Rowlett, Texas, remains in critical condition, the mission board said. She is the only survivor of the attack.

The Elliotts were scouting the best location for a water purification project, said Michelle DeVoss of the First Baptist Church in the Raleigh, North Carolina suburb of Cary.

"They knew going into Iraq, they couldn't really share their Christian faith unless somebody asked them," said Larry Kingsley, a church deacon. "They were there in a humanitarian situation. They were people who just had a great heart for helping people out."

Iraqi police and the FBI were investigating.

Iraqi officials and a U.S. military official in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Daniel Williams, said two Germans died in the Mussayab attack. A German embassy official, however, said one of the victims may have been Dutch.

Iraqi officials said the European victims were water experts working on a development project.

Last week, 33-year-old Fern Holland and Robert J. Zangas, 44, were killed along with their Iraqi translator when they were stopped at a checkpoint and killed by gunmen. The following day in Basra, gunmen shot dead two Iraqi women working with the coalition as they were returning home in a taxi.