iraqi bank robbed

[Duke]

Gang steals $5.5 million from Iraq bank
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Facebook Twitter Delicious Digg Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AFP/File – Blast walls protect the main entrance to the Al-Rafidain bank in central Baghdad in 2009. Robbers broke …
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NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) – Robbers broke into a branch of state-owned Rafidain bank with the help of a guard and stole 5.5 million dollars near the holy Shiite city of Najaf in southern Iraq, a local official said on Friday.

The theft is the second major Iraqi heist this week, coming just two days after masked gunmen swooped on jewellers in Baghdad in a brazen rampage that left eight dead, including a policeman.

"A gang robbed the bank late on Thursday night and took 6.5 billion Iraqi dinars," said Luay Yassiri, the head of Najaf provincial council's security committee.

"The first indications of the investigation confirm that one of the guards put sleep-inducing drugs into the other guards' tea and let the gang in. They entered the bank's safe and took the money."

The branch in Meshkhab, south of Najaf city, was apparently holding a large amount of cash to pay out salaries at the end of the month.

Bank staff and security officials were not immediately available to comment.

Thursday's robbery came two days after gunmen robbed gold and jewellery shops along a street in southwest Baghdad and shot the owners and staff, killing eight.

Crime has been on the rise in Iraq as the level of violence has fallen off from its 2006 and 2007 highs. Security officials say insurgent groups may be carrying out such robberies to obtain much-needed income to fund operations.

Eight police guards were killed in a massive bank heist in the Iraqi capital last July. The pre-dawn raid on a branch of Al-Rafidain bank saw the robbers make off with 3.8 million dollars, but the sum was later recovered.

In Iraq's biggest-ever hold-up, robbers stole 13.5 million dollars from a Rasheed Bank branch in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, in January 2005.

[Scooter]

Duke,

Thanks for sharing this. The timing happens to be very very interesting!!!!

Thanks,


Scooter