8 dead, $7M gone in Baghdad heist

BAGHDAD — Thieves killed eight security guards and made off with nearly $7 million in an overnight bank heist Tuesday that police officials say could have been the work of insurgents.

Iraqi police said the bank thieves used guns equipped with silencers to kill three guards outside a branch of the state-owned Rafidain Bank in eastern Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood during the night. They then shot dead five guards sleeping inside.

The robbery of 8 billion Iraqi dinars ($6.9 million) was discovered by employees arriving for work in the morning, calling into question the level of security on the streets of Baghdad now that Iraqi forces are in charge. Police said it appeared to have been a sophisticated operation in which the thieves used drills and blowtorches to break into the bank's safe.

Baghdad has witnessed a spate of robberies, giving rise to suspicions that insurgents have embarked on a crime spree to finance their activities.

On Monday, three people were killed and 12 wounded in a shootout between robbers and guards at a popular money exchange, also in Karradah, a mostly Shiite, middle-class neighborhood. The thieves escaped.

The U.S. military said it is possible insurgents are involved.

"I cannot confirm that the attacks were terrorist-related," said Maj. David Shoupe, spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad. "It does fit past trends of terrorist groups in Iraq financing their operations through criminal enterprise — like kidnappings for ransom, robberies and black marketeering." Iraqi security forces did not ask for U.S. assistance in either incident, Shoupe said.

The banking industry has enjoyed a revival in Iraq with the decline in sectarian violence over the past two years. But armed robberies targeting jewelry stores, currency exchanges and pawn shops appear to be on the rise.

In April, gunmen with silenced weapons killed at least seven people during a daylight heist of jewelry stores in Baghdad. In the same month, gunmen used similar tactics, killing two, during the robbery of a currency exchange office in the southern city of Basra.