IRAQ: Gunmen pull up beside bus, kill 11 riding to work

05/10/2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN)—Gunmen killed 11 people riding a bus to work at a state-run electric company in Baquba, Iraq, on Wednesday morning, police said.

The attackers riddled the bus with bullets after pulling alongside in two vehicles, a police official said. Three other people were wounded.

Meanwhile, the toll from Tuesday night’s suicide car bombing in a Shiite neighborhood in Tal Afar rose Wednesday to 20 dead and 37 wounded.

Tal Afar is near the Syrian border, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city.

President Bush recently cited Tal Afar as an example of the progress of coalition troops against the insurgency.

U.S. and Iraqi troops had pushed insurgents out of the city in 2004, but Tal Afar’s security forces were unable to hold the city.

In September, U.S. and Iraqi troops reclaimed Tal Afar after a monthlong operation. (Map)

Violence has persisted there, however. In March, just days after Bush’s speech touting the success of Tal Afar, a suicide bomber killed 30 people at an Iraqi army recruiting center outside the city.

Other developments

Five detainees escaped Tuesday from a prison in a rugged and mountainous part of northeastern Iraq. “The detainees left their jump suits behind, and are believed to be wearing dark-colored underwear,” a U.S. military spokesman said. Fort Suse in Sulaimaniya houses about 1,300 inmates.

Mohammed Musshab Talal, director of public relations for the Defense Ministry and a Finance Ministry employee, were shot dead Wednesday in separate incidents in Baghdad, police said.

Police found 14 bodies on Tuesday, including three beheaded bodies clad in Iraqi military uniforms. The decapitated bodies and another corpse, which had been shot in the head, were discovered in Sawayra, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Baghdad. Ten other bodies were found across the capital. They all had been shot in the head.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said Tuesday it is searching for a security guard wanted in connection with an explosion this week at a bomb-making workshop in a Baghdad mosque. One person was killed and two others wounded in the blast. An arrest warrant has been issued for the chief of the security guards, who had a basement office near the site of the blast.