Shells Kill 2 in Iraqi Brigade

Several shells hit a checkpoint of the Fallouja Brigade security force, killing at least two people, security and hospital officials said.

Capt. Majid Ahmad Salim, the brigade’s commander in the southern section of the city, said the fire came from U.S. tanks outside town. A U.S. military spokesman said he had no information on the incident.

The United States created the Iraqi force to patrol the volatile city when it pulled out in early May, after weeks of fighting that killed hundreds of Iraqis. Fallouja remains an insurgent stronghold.

In other developments:

* The military said two U.S. soldiers were wounded by shrapnel when their convoy was attacked on patrol near Tikrit in northern Iraq.

* Three Macedonian contractors disappeared in Iraq 10 days ago, a government spokesman in Skopje, the capital, and their employers said. Iraqi officials have been unable to confirm whether they were kidnapped.

* Gunmen abducted four policemen and an Iranian after raiding their hotel room in the southern city of Basra.

The officers had been escorting the Iranian to the border under a deportation order, a senior Basra police official said. He said the expulsion was linked to the unrest in Najaf but would not elaborate.