Gunmen dressed as police kill five Shia teachers in classroom

From Anthony Loyd in Baghdad - World - Times Online: "GUNMEN in police uniforms shot dead five Shia teachers at a primary school south of Baghdad yesterday. The killers waited until pupils and teachers were leaving the school in Meulha, a village near the town of Iskandariyah, at the end of the day and seized them from a minibus.

The five male teachers and minibus driver were then taken to a classroom, lined up against the wall and shot. “These men were terrorists in uniform,” an Iraqi police spokesman said.

Iskandariyah, 30 miles from the Iraqi capital, is a predominantly Sunni town in an area that has become known as the triangle of death because of the sectarian killings there.

Violence between the three principal Iraqi communities is intensifying in the run-up to the referendum on the draft constitution on October 15.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber attacked a police academy as a bus carrying oil ministry employees to work passed it. The blast killed at least seven policemen and three bus passengers, and wounded 36.

Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, the Oil Minister, said: “The insurgents are targeting Iraqi government employees and worshippers in mosques. These savage acts won’t undermine the forthcoming people’s referendum on the new Iraqi constitution.”

Hours earlier, American and Iraqi authorities freed 500 inmates from Abu Ghraib jail in a goodwill gesture to the Sunni population before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts next week. The men, all minor offenders, were the first of 1,000 due to be freed before Ramadan. A further 1,000 were freed last month.

Arab governments often pardon non-violent offenders during Ramadan, but this was the first time that inmates from Abu Ghraib had benefited. The jail became the focus of an international scandal after a number of US military personnel were charged with humiliating and assaulting prisoners there. The release was seen as an olive brach to the Sunnis, many of whom are calling for a “no” vote in the referendum. Sunni leaders say that the constitution would leave Sunnis, who were the dominant minority under Saddam, isolated under a Shia-Kurdish bloc.

Three American soldiers also died in two roadside bombings yesterday, bringing the overall death toll in Iraq over the past two days to 51. On Sunday, an American-Iraqi patrol was ambushed in Sadr city, the Shia slum in the east of Baghdad. A gun battle ensued and at least ten of the attackers, militiamen loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric, were killed. It was the first significant clash in the neighbourhood for a year, and follows tensions in Basra where British troops fought a Shia mob last week after the detention of two British soldiers. Last year Hojatoleslam al-Sadr led an insurgency against coalition troops in Kut, Najaf and Karbala, which was later ended by a truce. So far the cleric has not instructed his followers which way to vote in the referendum.

However, publicly at least, his officials have urged restraint after the renewed violence. Abdul Hardi al-Duraji, a senior spokesman for Hojatoleslam al-Sadr, said: “There is of course a connection between what happened in Basra and the fighting in Sadr city.

“Everybody wants to stop the Sadrists from coming to power, especially the British and Americans. But we call on all Sadrists to be calm and stable and not allow themselves to be killed, for our power will come from a political process. The enemy will attack us with bullets and we should answer by words.”"