Wednesday June 23, 2004

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Two Iraqi sisters working for a big U.S. firm were killed in a drive-by shooting on Tuesday near their home in the southern city of Basra, relatives said.

Their father, Sadah Audishow, said he had been waiting at the window for his daughters to return from work when he heard gunshots and saw a white pick-up truck speeding past.

"I had been waiting for my daughters to come home at five o'clock," said Audishow, an Assyrian Christian who works and lives in the church with his family.

"I picked one of them up and she was dead. I went to pick up the other but found her dead too," he said Wednesday, his shirt still stained with blood from the night before.

Neighbors said men in the truck had opened fire on the girls' car. Janet and Shatha, aged 38 and 25, worked for U.S. company Bechtel, the father said. Bechtel has been awarded major infrastructure reconstruction contracts in Iraq.

The driver who had been taking the sisters to and from their jobs at Basra Airport, was wounded. Bechtel officials in Iraq were not immediately available for comment.

The family was taking the bodies of the women to the northern city of Mosul for burial, the father said.

"We had received no threats," he said. "We are peaceful people, just making a living."

Attacks on Iraqi translators and others working with U.S. companies in Iraq are common. There have been numerous reports of attacks on Christians and shopkeepers selling
alcohol in largely Shi'ite Muslim Basra since the U.S.-led war last year.

Insurgents have intensified a campaign of assassinations, bombings and attacks on oil infrastructure ahead of the transition from U.S.-led occupation to Iraqi rule on June 30. Most of the victims have been ordinary Iraqis.