Iraqi Officer Slain by Violent Mourners

SAMARRA, Iraq â€”  Iraqis mourning two men killed in a firefight with U.S. troops clashed here Saturday with civil defense forces, killing one Iraqi officer and setting his pickup truck ablaze. “Long live Saddam!â€� they chanted as the vehicle smoldered.

Farther north, gunmen killed a police rookie in Mosul in the latest attack on Iraqis seen as collaborating with the U.S.-led occupation. U.S. forces arrested arms dealers and broke up a cell that they said was planning attacks on Americans.

The mourners in Samarra were burying two men killed last week in battles with U.S. forces. After the Americans returned the men’s bodies Saturday, about 1,000 people marched to the cemetery to bury them. As is customary in Iraq, they fired weapons in the air.

A group of Iraqi officers from the U.S.-led Civil Defense Corps told them to put away their guns, witnesses said, and the mourners opened fire, shooting one officer in the head and chasing away the others.

Minutes later, dozens of people jumped up and down on the charred pickup, chanting “Long live Saddam! Death to the traitors!� The officer’s body lay nearby.

At the cemetery, the mourners marked the graves with Iraqi flags, strewing red and yellow roses around the site.

“God is great! Nobody escapes our revenge,� mourners chanted. There were no American forces in sight.

Samarra is 60 miles north of Baghdad in the so-called Sunni Triangle, where opposition to the U.S.-led occupation has been fiercest and loyalty to Saddam Hussein remains strong.

There have been several attacks in Samarra in the last few weeks, including coordinated ambushes of a currency delivery to banks Nov. 30.

U.S. forces said that in the ensuing fighting, they killed dozens of fighters; Iraqi police said only eight people died, most of them civilians.

In Mosul, three gunmen killed an Iraqi policeman on his way to work Saturday, police said.

The victim was a 24-year-old recent graduate of a police academy that has received support and guidance from coalition forces.

Guerrillas have often targeted Iraqi police and other authorities, accusing them of collaborating with the occupation.

In the area around Mosul, Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler said, the U.S. military captured 10 people who allegedly were planning attacks against coalition forces, and detained six involved in selling black-market weapons.

Separately, Maj. Josslyn Aberle said U.S. troops raided two houses and a mosque near Tikrit and arrested 14 people suspected of links to insurgents. She said the troops seized materials that could have been used for roadside bombs.