Seven civilians killed in Iraq's 'triangle of death'

BAGHDAD, Dec 11 (AFP) - Masked gunmen killed seven civilians in a series of attacks in Iraq's "triangle of death", south of Baghdad, police and witnesses said Saturday.
Attackers jumped out of a car in the town of Mahmudiyah on Friday and opened up with automatic weapons on a man in the street whom they accused of "collaborating with the occupier", according to eye-witness Abdallah Abbas.
A second man standing nearby was also killed, he and another witness said.
Five shopkeepers were killed also Friday and Saturday in the area just south of the capital dubbed the triangle of death because of the frequent kidnappings and deadly attacks that take place there.
Two were killed early Saturday in the town of Iskandariyah and three others on Friday in Haswa, according to police officers who were unable to provide information on the motives for the killings.
In another development, a group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Brigades" said in tracts distributed in the towns of Latifiyah, Iskandariyah and Mahmudiyah that it was not involved in the murder of Shiite Muslims in the area.
The tracts said the group would kill criminals and those who collaborated with American forces.

12/11/2004 12:14 GMT - AFP