AP Photographer Captures Baghdad Killings

By: (AP) A brazen daylight attack in the heart of Baghdad in which rebels executed election workers in cold blood served as a chilling reminder Sunday of the deteriorating security situation in the Iraqi capital with little more than a month before crucial parliamentary elections.

A series of pictures taken by an Associated Press photographer show three pistol-wielding gunmen, who had earlier stopped a car carrying the election officials and dragged them into the middle of Haifa Street in the midst of morning traffic.

In the dramatic photo sequence one of the captives is shown lying prone on the pavement, while the another one seems to be kneeling as the armed men approach, casually carrying their handguns or aiming them at the men.

The busy, traffic-clogged street has been the scene of almost daily gunfights between the insurgents and U.S. troops and the forces of the U.S.-installed interim government. In the 1970s and '80s, Saddam Hussein's regime tore down traditional, lowrise dwellings that lined the thoroughfare and built apartment blocks for its Baath Party supporters.

Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission said in a statement that about 30 militants hurling hand grenades and firing machine guns attacked the car carrying five of its employees as they were driving to work.

Three employees, identified by the commission as Hatem Ali Hadi al-Moussawi, a lawyer and deputy director for the commission's Karkh office, and two of his office employees, Mahdi Sbeih and Samy Moussa, were dragged from their cars and shot dead. Two men escaped unhurt.

Both of the victims shown in the sequence of photos wore the traditional Arab headscarfs. In contrast, the attackers were bareheaded and apparently unafraid to show their faces.

There are no photos of the actual executions, but they show two of the three bodies after they were shot at close range lying on the asphalt. In the final photo, a man is seen standing above the bodies waving for help, as a U.S. Apache helicopter appears above the crime scene after the gunmen apparently melted away into the crowd.

The Baghdad street executions preceded by just hours car bombings in the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in which at least 62 people were killed and more than 120 were wounded.