Police say kill American in south Iraq clash

ZUBAYR, Iraq, Nov 17 (Reuters) Iraqi police said they killed an American in civilian clothes and wounded another today after the men shot dead two police officers just outside the southern town of Zubayr.

A police officer in Zubayr, an enclave of the Sunni Arab minority in predominantly Shi'ite south Iraq, told Reuters customs police stopped a US-made four-wheel drive vehicle in the late morning on suspicion it had entered Iraq illegally.

The occupants turned out to be Americans and opened fire, killing two policemen, he said. The body and the wounded man were now under British military custody in Zubayr hospital.

A spokesman for the British forces controlling Basra region said he was unaware of the incident.

Captain Tane Dunlop said British troops killed two gunmen in a raid near the border town of Safwan, 40 km south of Zubayr, but it was not connected to a hunt for four missing American security guards kidnapped along with an Austrian when their convoy was hijacked between Safwan and Zubayr yesterday.

Zubayr police officers had earlier said US forces were raiding the customs police station in the town but later said this had not happened. They had merely taken precautions after the incident involving the gunbattle with the Americans.

British and US officials have accused some Iraqi police forces of being in league with sectarian militias and bandits.

In one incident last year, two British undercover special forces troops were arrested by Basra police and the British army mounted an operation to free them from jail, saying that they feared they had fallen into the hands of Shi'ite militiamen.

REUTERS PDM HS1806