Security guards 'kill Iraqi women'

Two women have been killed by private security guards escorting a convoy of four vehicles through the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The incident comes the same day as a demand by the Iraqi government that US security firm Blackwater pay the families of 17 people "deliberately killed" in September $8 million compensation each.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said: "There has been an incident, an attack on civilians. Two Iraqi women were killed and an investigation is going on to find which security company it was."

According to police sources, the shooting took place in the district of Karrada. A US embassy spokeswoman said the reports are being checked.

The Blackwater shooting caused outrage among Iraqis who see security contractors as lawless private armies.

Blackwater said its guards responded appropriately to a hostile threat against a government convoy it was guarding.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ordered tighter controls on the company and diplomatic security agents will now accompany each convoy protected by Blackwater guards.

Earlier, at least 22 people were killed in two suicide bombings in the north of the country while later in Baghdad, at least 11 people died and 58 were wounded in three car bombs and two roadside blasts killed, police said.

The earlier attacks occurred in the town of Baiji, a major oil refining centre in Salahuddin province, 110 miles north of Baghdad.

They targeted a local police chief and a Sunni Arab tribal leader who are working with US forces to fight al-Qaeda.

The Sunni Islamist terrorist group vowed to increase such attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, specifically against government officials and tribal leaders working with the US military.

Police said one bomb targeted a mosque, killing at least ten civilians. The other was aimed at Baiji's police chief, Colonel Saad Nifous, who was wounded in a blast at his home.

A police source in Baiji said the target of that bombing was Hamad al-Jubouri, the Sunni Arab leader of the "Awakening" council for Salahuddin. It was unclear if Jubouri was hurt.

The councils are based on a model first used in Western Anbar province where Sunni Arab sheikhs joined with US forces to drive al-Qaeda militants from much of the vast desert region.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.