Iraqi officials say 4 jewelers killed in Fallujah amid rising street crime

4 killed in jewelry shop robbery in west Iraq

BAGHDAD — Gunmen raided a jewelry shop Saturday morning in western Iraq, killing four people before fleeing with a large amount of gold, officials said.

The brazen robbery is the latest in a string of violent attacks on lucrative targets such as banks, jewelry stores and money exchange houses that have plagued Iraq. Police speculate that insurgents seeking to replenish their funds may be behind the attacks.

Police and hospital officials said six attackers used handguns fitted with silencers during the heist in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad.

The victims were believed to have been the owners of the shop, police said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Street crime appears to be soaring in Iraq as sectarian fighting wanes and the U.S. military prepares to withdraw its forces by the end of next year. Criminals and insurgents are exploiting security gaps as Iraqi politicians bicker over the formation of a new government more than three months after national elections.

None of Iraq’s main political groups won a clear majority in the March 7 vote and parliament has met only once since then. Parliament is scheduled to meet next July 14.

Iraqi security forces have blamed these kinds of bold robberies on al-Qaida-linked insurgents intent on filling their coffers for future attacks.

An officer with Anbar police said al-Qaida could be behind Saturday’s attack, because “since we know that the robbery was accompanied by killings which is a trademark” of the group.

“We have been taking strict measures to prevent al-Qaida from regrouping or attacking people, but breaches happen,” Brig. Gen. Mahmoud al-Issawi said, adding the police officer responsible for the neighborhood where the robbery took place is under investigation.

Wisam Talib, a jeweler in Fallujah said shop owners were summoned by the city’s police last week and advised to hire bodyguards and told to keep weapons in their shops to repel any attacks.

An al-Qaida front group claimed responsibility for last week’s strike on the Central Bank of Iraq, in which at least 26 died. On June 9, gunmen killed three jewelers before fleeing with gold in southern city of Basra. Two weeks earlier, a similar robbery in Baghdad left 15 dead.

Also Saturday, one policeman was killed and five others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near a patrol in the northern city of Mosul, police officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

____

Associated Press Writer Sameer Yacoub contributed to this report.