Iraqi collaborators of US forces on hit list

AFP, Baghdad
Iraqi police came under attack in Baghdad overnight in what US-led authorities have described as a growing pattern of Iraqi strikes and threats against compatriots cooperating with the occupying forces.

Unidentified assailants lobbed grenades at the police station in northern Baghdad, injuring two Iraqi policemen, a US intelligence officer told AFP, asking not to be identified. He said no US soldiers were wounded in the attack.

At least two attackers threw three or more grenades and fired gunshots at the police station in the city's Ash-Shab district, where US military police are stationed to train members of Iraq's new police force.

"Two Iraqi police were wounded by shrapnel, one in the hand and one in the pelvis," the officer said, adding that the US army believed one attacker was wounded in an ensuing exchange of fire but escaped.

The attack follows a weekend bomb attack in Ramadi, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, in which seven Iraqi police recruits were killed and dozens of others wounded.

Residents in the town said there had been threats warning Iraqis not to cooperate with the US-led coalition prior to the bombing.

A senior coalition official said last week that the US-led authority believed it had noticed a pattern of "Iraqi-on-Iraqi" attacks after a number of incidents, including a power worker being gunned down at home.

With the wave of attacks on US troops and those working with them showing no sign of a let up, the coalition announced Tuesday it will offer rewards starting at 2,500 dollars for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.

"Coalition forces will give a 2,500 dollar reward to those who give us information leading to the arrest of people responsible for killing or shooting coalition soldiers or Iraqi policemen," the coalition's newspaper said.