Insurgents posing as policemen killed a Baghdad police chief today, stopping his truck at a fake checkpoint, asking his name then shooting him in an attack claimed by al Qaeda's followers in Iraq.
Police found the bodies of four Iraqi soldiers shot dead and dumped by insurgents in western Iraq, adding to two grim discoveries of 41 bodies, some shot and others beheaded, in the Sunni heartland of the country earlier this week.
The US-backed interim government has set up a new police force, army and security service, often trained by foreign instructors, to instil a sense of order in Iraq. But many say for a payment, insurgents bent on bringing down the US-backed government can easily penetrate their ranks.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Obeis, travelling to work at Salhiya police station in central Baghdad, was shot dead along with two other policemen while one guerrilla filmed the attack.
"On March 10 an al-Qaeda team set up a checkpoint in the Ilam district and lay in wait for an officer in the Interior Ministry intelligence branch who used to investigate and harm mujahideen," al-Qaeda in Iraq said in an Internet statement.
"When he pulled out his identity papers the mujahideen riddled him with bullets, killing him."
Obeis's brother, at the scene after the attack, cried "God what have you done?" as he picked up a bloodied shoe.
In southeastern Baghdad, another policeman, Iyad Abed, was shot dead by gunmen on his way to work.