Ramadi, Iraq, Jan 22: Four Iraqi laundresses working at a US military base west of Baghdad were killed and five others wounded when gunmen raked a minibus they were travelling in, a survivor said today. The attack happened late yesterday on the road linking the Flashpoint town of Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad to the US base of Habbaniyah further west. "We were nine women and the driver. It was 6:30 PM (0900 IST) and we were going, as every day, to the Habbaniyah base, where we work in the laundry," said Maggi Aziz, 49, wounded in the leg, shoulder and head. "Suddenly, four masked men in a white Opel machine-gunned our minibus and four women died. The rest of the passengers were wounded," said the woman from her hospital bed in Ramadi.


"It is possible that the attackers were terrorists who wanted to hit us because we have good relations with the Americans."

On Sunday, a suicide bomber blew up a truck outside the Baghdad headquarters of the us-led coalition, killing 24 people, most of them Iraqis queuing up to work at the symbol to American power in Iraq.
Bureau Report