Killers’ Trail May Lead to Iraqi Police Officers

BAGHDAD —  Four suspects arrested in connection with the slaying of two Americans and their Iraqi interpreter are believed to be Iraqi policemen, U.S. authorities said Friday while defending their screening procedures for hiring Iraqi security.

The four -- among six suspects in custody in the killings -- carried Iraqi police identification that is believed to be valid and current, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition occupying Iraq.

The disclosure renewed fears that insurgents have infiltrated Iraqi police, who are supposed to help carry the security load, especially after the coalition hands over sovereignty June 30.

The six suspects are being questioned about the roadside slayings south of Baghdad on Tuesday of two coalition staffers found dead in their vehicle along with their Iraqi interpreter. The two were the first American civilian coalition employees to be slain.

FBI officials were called in to investigate what Dan Senor, chief spokesman for L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administrator for Iraq, called a “targeted act of terrorism.”

Confirmation that Iraqi lawmen were suspected in the killings forced coalition spokesmen to defend the rapid hiring of tens of thousands of Iraqi security personnel since Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled last spring. The ongoing transfer of policing and other security tasks to Iraqi security officers is a cornerstone of U.S. policy.

The U.S., which has acknowledged a keen interest in putting uniformed Iraqis on the streets as soon as possible, says the lawmen were screened.

“We have a very robust vetting process for all Iraqis that are hired ... into security services,” said Senor, who acknowledged that some bad recruits might “slip through the cracks.”

Every police force faces such problems, he said. “While it is a robust vetting process, it is not perfect, as is to be expected, not just only in the Iraqi security forces but in security forces around the world.”

About 70,000 Iraqi police help provide security throughout the country, manning checkpoints, investigating crime, walking beats and performing many other tasks once left to U.S. soldiers. Their presence has reduced the exposure of U.S. and other troops and helped trim casualties from enemy attacks.

Iraqi police have been squarely in the cross hairs of insurgent fighters, who view them as collaborators with the occupation. More than 300 officers have been killed in police station bombings and other attacks.

“The overwhelming majority of those Iraqis [who] have joined the security forces ... are patriotic citizens of Iraq,” Senor said. “They want a role in helping to rebuild this country.”

Many, if not most, Iraqi police officers were police for Hussein’s Baathist regime.

U.S. forces have excluded high-level Baathists from police and other jobs and required that security officers sign a form renouncing Baathist policies.

Police officers receive three to eight weeks of training that includes special instruction on respecting human rights and on how police should operate in a democracy.

However, police and other Iraqi security forces already have been implicated in other cases involving insurgents, authorities said.

More than 150,000 Iraqis have been integrated into domestic security units, including the police, defense corps, border patrol and a group that guards buildings and other sites. The number is expected to grow beyond 200,000.

U.S. officials hope to turn security over to the new Iraqi security forces so American troops can leave.

The six suspects in custody are the active police officers, a former policeman in Hussein’s regime and a civilian, the coalition said. All six were picked up in a car after the slayings, officials said.

If the suspects are formally charged, Senor said, international law requires that they be tried in Iraq.

Details about the slayings remain murky.

It remains unclear why the victims’ car was apparently traveling without a backup vehicle or an armed escort on roads considered hazardous.

Officials discounted earlier reports that the victims were stopped at a makeshift police checkpoint and fired upon. It appears more likely that their vehicle was chased off the road or fired upon as it was moving. The sedan was found in an embankment on the side of the road outside Hillah.

The two coalition employees were identified as Fern Holland, 33, a human rights activist from Oklahoma who helped set up half a dozen women’s centers in south-central Iraq, and Robert Zangas, 44, a regional press officer who was helping the area media set up shop in the post-Hussein era. Their interpreter, Salwa Ourmashi, was Holland’s assistant.

The two Americans were known for their dedication, co-workers said, and had returned to Iraq voluntarily to work for the coalition after stints last year. Holland had originally come as an employee of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Zangas had arrived as a Marine.

U.S. authorities would not comment on a possible motive for the slayings. One possibility is that the victims were targeted because they worked for occupying forces. Another is that they were attacked because they were Westerners on a quiet road in a country where non-Arabs have routinely been targeted.