Funeral held for five Turks killed in Iraq

The five men had been killed in what Turkey says was a planned attack against a convoy of vehicles carrying the officers and others to the Turkish embassy in Baghdad. The attack took place in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Three other officers survived the ambush.
Describing the attackers as terrorists and murderers, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey should not have been made to pay such a price for assisting Iraq.
“Turkey is a country that values Iraq’s territorial and political unity and gives it more humanitarian aid more than anyone else,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said when addressing the ceremony. “Unfortunately, there are traitors and cowards who still fail to appreciate Turkey’s generosity.”
Among those who also attended the service were President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and the Chief of Turkish General Staff General Hilmi Ozkok.