Police find eight bodies after ambush in S.Iraq

BAGHDAD, Nov 30 (Reuters) The bodies of a senior official of a Sunni religious organisation, his three guards and four others were found dumped together near the southern Shi'ite city of Basra today police said.

Police said gunmen ambushed two cars carrying a local official of the Sunni Endowment, the body responsible for Sunni mosques in Iraq, and members of Facility Protection Services (FPS), which guards Iraq's oilfields.

The Sunni Endowment in Basra said its deputy manager, Nasser al-Qatrani, and his three guards were ambushed on a bridge on the northern outskirts of Basra yesterday.

Police said they discovered the bodies nearby today, along with those of the four FPS members, who are frequent targets for attack by militants.

Clerics and leaders from the Sunni Muslim minority dominant under Saddam Hussein accuse Shi'ite militias with links to the new US-backed government of running death and kidnap squads that target them.

REUTERS AB VC1457