Bush's Third Quagmire

Beheadings are now a part of the disaster in Haiti.

Machete-wielding supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide are turning their wrath on Haiti's demoralized police force, beheading some of their victims in a campaign imitative of the insurgency in Iraq.

Seven of at least 18 people killed in the turmoil in Port-au-Prince have been police officers, judicial police chief Michael Lucius said Monday. He said an eighth officer remains hospitalized in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the head.

Three of the slain policemen were decapitated after being shot during clashes with pro-Aristide demonstrators last week.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who is leading a U.S.-backed transitional government installed after Aristide's ouster in February, has said the police killings were part of an offensive by pro-Aristide gangs dubbed "Operation Baghdad."