Private Guards Fire on Taxi; Three Iraqis Hurt, Police Say

Because Erinys did not remain at the scene of the shooting, Iraqi authorities were unable to identify the firm, they said. The passengers reported only that the SUVs had lion logos, the Erinys company emblem, affixed to their doors.

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Elsewhere in Kurdish northern Iraq, hundreds protested the Turkish parliament's approval of a measure authorizing a military incursion into Iraq to stop attacks by rebels. In Irbil, protesters carried Kurdish flags and signs that read "No to a military solution" and "Protecting Kurdistan borders is a national duty."

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he anticipates limited Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish separatists in the north of the country, and he called for the rebels to leave as soon as possible. "To talk about a major military offensive and major cross-border incursion, that I do not expect," he told the Reuters news agency.

In Baghdad, residents braced for violence after reports that Saddam Hussein aide Ali Hassan Majid, known as Chemical Ali, was expected to be hanged shortly, along with at least one other top Baath Party official. Majid has been sentenced to death for his role in the so-called Anfal campaign in the late 1980s that killed more than 100,000 Kurds.

Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi said the executions could not take place until there was agreement between top government officials over rulings by Iraqi courts dealing with the case.

Special correspondents Zaid Sabah and Naseer Nouri and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.