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Posted: Saturday, April 10th, 2004 8:03 PM HST

Security firm says four U.S. civilians were ambushed in Iraq

By Associated Press

(Raleigh, North Carolina-AP) -- The employer of a Hawaii man and three other men killed in Iraq last week says they were lured into an ambush. Wesley Batalona of the Big Island and the other three were working for a private security firm when their vehicle was hit by rocket-propelled grenades March 31st in Fallujah. Patrick Toohey is Blackwater Security's vice president for government relations. He's told The New York Times that the four men were led into an ambush by men they believed to be members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. Two senior Pentagon officials said they couldn't confirm that conclusion. A separate military inquiry is continuing. The bodies of the men were mutilated and burned, and two were hung from the framework of a bridge.