BAGHDAD: Gunmen killed 17 Iraqi police instructors and two translators as they travelled home from work at a British-run training school near the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Sunday, a senior Iraqi officer said.
The brutal killings in the south came as US troops fought off an insurgent ambush in northern Iraq, killing 17 rebels, and as Iraq's government urged Washington to grant it more control over its own armed forces.
"There were 17 officers and two translators on their way back home after they finished work when gunmen stopped them in an area called al-Kibla," the Iraqi officer said. "They work as instructors at the police academy in Shuaiba.
