A CROWD of cheering Iraqis dragged charred and mutilated bodies through the streets of Falluja yesterday after an attack on two vehicles that witnesses said killed at least three foreigners.

The crowd set the two four-wheel-drive vehicles ablaze after the attack and threw stones into the burning wreckage.

Television pictures showed one incinerated body being kicked and stamped on by a member of the jubilant crowd, while others dragged a blackened body down the road by its feet.

The footage showed at least three people lying dead, while some witnesses said that four were killed. It was not clear how many people were in the vehicles.

As one body lay burning on the ground, an Iraqi came and doused it with petrol, sending flames soaring.

At least two bodies were tied to cars and pulled through the streets, witnesses said.

Some body parts were pulled off and left hanging from a pole, while two incinerated bodies were later strung from a bridge over the road and left dangling there.

Foreigners targeted

It was unclear who was travelling in the vehicles, both four-wheel drives of the type used by foreign contractors, journalists, civilian members of the US-led coalition and some military personnel. Witnesses said they saw anywhere between four and eight people in the cars before they were attacked.

Some of the victims were wearing civilian clothes, flak jackets and were armed, witnesses said, but that was not clear from the television footage. One of those killed had fair hair and was wearing khaki trousers and a white t-shirt.

As the victims lay burning, a crowd of around 150 men chanted ?Long live Islam? and ?Allahu Akbar? (God is Greatest) while flashing victory signs.

Falluja, about 50 km west of Baghdad, has been one of the most violent, restive towns in Iraq since the US-led occupation began a year ago. There are almost daily attacks on US military convoys operating in the area.

The attack came shortly after the US military said five coalition soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack west of Baghdad. A spokesman declined to say what nationality the soldiers were or where exactly the attack occurred.

The vast majority of the troops operating in the al-Anbar province west of Baghdad, which includes the towns of Falluja and Ramadi, are US Marines.

More than 400 US soldiers have been killed in action since the start of the war to overthrow Saddam, many of them in attacks using so-called improvised explosive devices in which an explosive charge is hidden in a plastic bag, soft drink can or dead animal and wired to a simple detonator.

As well as attacks on US and coalition troops, there appears to have been a sharp increase on insurgent strikes against foreigners in recent weeks.

In March alone, 12 foreign civilians have been killed in drive-by shootings or similar attacks. In the most recent incident, a Briton and a Canadian, both working as security guards, were shot and killed on Sunday in the city of Mosul.

Earlier in March, two Finns were killed in Baghdad, and four U.S. missionaries were shot dead in Mosul. In Hilla, south of Baghdad, two Americans working for the U.S. civilian authority were shot in a drive-by shooting.

With less than 100 days to go before US authorities hand over sovereignty to an Iraqi government, the US military, Iraqi police and other local security forces are still battling to bring security to the country.

Almost every day there are attacks using rockets, grenades, assault rifles, small arms or suicide bombs somewhere in the country.

On Wednesday, a car bomb blew up in Baquba, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Baghdad, wounding around a dozen people, while on Tuesday a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle outside the house of the chief of police in Hilla, but killed only himself.

Michael Georgy