by TChris

Officials in Iraq are reporting the results of "the single deadliest ambush of the insurgency": the execution of 49 Iraqi soldiers by "guerrillas dressed as police officers."

The soldiers were pulled out of three minibuses at a fake checkpoint about 95 miles east of Baghdad, near the Iranian border, police officials said. They were told or forced to lie down on the ground in four rows, then killed mostly with bullets to their heads. The ambush, extraordinarily ambitious in scope and violence, showed a high level of organization, and the insurgents likely had inside information on the travel plans of the soldiers, who were members of the nascent Iraqi National Guard, officials said.

In another attack, a State Department security officer, Edward Seitz, was killed this morning at the inaptly named Camp Victory, the American base near Baghdad International Airport.