Gunmen posing as Iraqi police shot dead two US civilians and their translator on a road south of Baghdad in the latest attack targeting foreigners.
The three were killed yesterday on a road between Kerbala and Hilla. Their car was found later by Polish troops in charge of security in the area, with the bodies of the victims in the trunk. Five men found with the car were arrested.
A spokesman for Iraq's US governor, Mr Paul Bremer, said the Americans were Department of Defense employees working for the US-led administration in Iraq.
He said it was the first time since the start of the war that non-Iraqi civilians working for the administration had been killed.
Poland's Ministry of Defence said the attackers disguised themselves as police at a checkpoint. "It was practically an execution carried out by people pretending to be Iraqi policemen," Defence Minister Mr Jerzy Szmajdzinski said.
Guerrillas fighting the occupation of Iraq often attack on roads in lawless areas, using bombs hidden by the roadside or opening fire with assault rifles to ambush military vehicles and convoys of foreign civilians.
At least 380 US soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since the start of the war to oust Saddam Hussein.