U.S. Says Iraqis Held in American Deaths Had Valid Police ID

March 12, 2004
By JOHN F. BURNS

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 12 — The American occupation authority said today that four of the six men arrested after gunmen shot and killed two American civilians on Tuesday were carrying "current and valid" documents identifying them as members of the new Iraqi police force.

Iraqi police officers in Karbala said that several of the killers had worked at a police station opposite the place where one of the civilians, Fern Holland, 33, worked. Ms. Holland promoted women's rights, and the killers' motive appeared to be anger at American efforts that some perceive as hostile to local social mores, they said.

A fifth man seized in the killings was a former member of the police force under Saddam Hussein, an American spokesman said, while the sixth man was described as a civilian.

Three days after the killings on a road near Karbala, the Shiite holy city 70 miles south of Baghdad, American officials identified the American victims as Ms. Holland and Robert Zangis, 44, a former marine, who was working with Iraqi newspapers to promote press rights.

An Iraqi woman working as an interpreter was also killed when the car that all three were traveling in was chased down by the gunmen about 20 miles east of Karbala at sunset on Tuesday.

American officials continued to hold back further details of the killings, citing concern for the families of the victims. They also said that the investigation by the F.B.I. and Iraqis was not complete, and that some details about the attack remained uncertain.

The killings raised questions about the American effort to promote values here that often conflict with local attitudes and traditions, but senior American officials said that the effort to promote "Western values" of sexual equality and other individual rights would not be curtailed.

There were also questions about the American vetting of applicants for the new 70,000-man, American-trained police force, about 90 per cent of whom served as police officers under Saddam Hussein. They have been put through a three-week course by American officials to learn Western policing methods and respect for human rights.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company