OMEN
06-05-2006, 07:58 AM
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Diyala province, Iraq
GUNMEN have dragged 24 people, mostly teenage students, from their vehicles and shot them dead in the latest wave of violence in Iraq.
As Iraqi leaders appeared deadlocked overnight on naming new interior and defence ministers seen as critical to restoring stability, the relentless killings continued.
Police said gunmen manning a makeshift checkpoint near Udhaim, 120km north of Baghdad, stopped cars approaching the small town and killed the passengers.
The victims included youths of around 15 and 16 years old, who were on their way to the bigger regional town of Baquba for end of term exams, and also elderly men, they said.
"(The attackers) dragged them one by one from their cars and executed them," said a police official.
The killings took place in Diyala province, scene of frequent attacks by insurgents waging a campaign of bombings and shootings to topple the US-backed, Shiite-led government.Some tried to flee but were gunned down, a police source said.
Reuters photographs showed six men shot in the chest, including one old man and five young men.
In Iraq's south, a Sunni religious group accused security forces in the Shiite-run city of Basra of killing 12 unarmed worshippers in a mosque, but police said they had returned fire and shot dead nine terrorists.
The incident came just hours after a car bomb killed 28 people in Basra, challenging a state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to crack down on criminal gangs and Shiite factions whose feuding threatens oil exports.
It was among the worst violence Iraq's second city has seen since US-forced invaded to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Violence has mounted throughout Iraq since the February bombing of a Shiite shrine. It touched off a wave of revenge killings that sparked fears of civil war.
The United States, which has 130,000 troops in Iraq, hopes Mr Maliki's broad coalition of majority Shiites and minority Sunnis and Kurds will be able to defuse the violence.
Key to that will be the naming of non-sectarian interior and defence ministers who can quell communal and insurgent attacks.
Intense wrangling forced Mr Maliki to leave the posts empty when he unveiled his government of national unity on May 20. He has threatened to present his own nominees to parliament if political blocs fail to agree on candidates.
Government sources had said leaders were close to a deal at the weekend to present to parliament former Shiite army officer Farouk al-Araji for interior minister and Sunni General Abdel Qader Jassim, commander of Iraqi ground forces, for defence.
But Deputy Speaker Khaled al-Attiya said the parliament session had been postponed "until further notice".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox News Sunday: "I really do believe they'll get it settled in the next few days. But the important thing here is that they get it right.
"And when they get it right, and they will get it right, everybody will forget how long it took them. What will matter is that they have the very strongest ... defence and interior ministries."
Political sources said the powerful Shiite Alliance was deadlocked on a nominee for the Interior Ministry post. They said the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the dominant parties in the Alliance, had threatened to reject Mr Araji's nomination.
"Some want to tell him (Mr Maliki) that even though he is a prime minister he must consult with his bloc on jobs," one senior Shiite source told Reuters.
Meanwhile, an Interior Ministry official denied a state television report that four Russian embassy employees kidnapped in Baghdad had been released.
A Russian embassy employee in Baghdad was killed on at the weekend and four other embassy staff were kidnapped when gunmen blocked their vehicle in the capital's western Mansour district.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy said he had heard the media report about their release, but that he had received no word on this from Iraqi authorities.
Reuters
Diyala province, Iraq
GUNMEN have dragged 24 people, mostly teenage students, from their vehicles and shot them dead in the latest wave of violence in Iraq.
As Iraqi leaders appeared deadlocked overnight on naming new interior and defence ministers seen as critical to restoring stability, the relentless killings continued.
Police said gunmen manning a makeshift checkpoint near Udhaim, 120km north of Baghdad, stopped cars approaching the small town and killed the passengers.
The victims included youths of around 15 and 16 years old, who were on their way to the bigger regional town of Baquba for end of term exams, and also elderly men, they said.
"(The attackers) dragged them one by one from their cars and executed them," said a police official.
The killings took place in Diyala province, scene of frequent attacks by insurgents waging a campaign of bombings and shootings to topple the US-backed, Shiite-led government.Some tried to flee but were gunned down, a police source said.
Reuters photographs showed six men shot in the chest, including one old man and five young men.
In Iraq's south, a Sunni religious group accused security forces in the Shiite-run city of Basra of killing 12 unarmed worshippers in a mosque, but police said they had returned fire and shot dead nine terrorists.
The incident came just hours after a car bomb killed 28 people in Basra, challenging a state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to crack down on criminal gangs and Shiite factions whose feuding threatens oil exports.
It was among the worst violence Iraq's second city has seen since US-forced invaded to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Violence has mounted throughout Iraq since the February bombing of a Shiite shrine. It touched off a wave of revenge killings that sparked fears of civil war.
The United States, which has 130,000 troops in Iraq, hopes Mr Maliki's broad coalition of majority Shiites and minority Sunnis and Kurds will be able to defuse the violence.
Key to that will be the naming of non-sectarian interior and defence ministers who can quell communal and insurgent attacks.
Intense wrangling forced Mr Maliki to leave the posts empty when he unveiled his government of national unity on May 20. He has threatened to present his own nominees to parliament if political blocs fail to agree on candidates.
Government sources had said leaders were close to a deal at the weekend to present to parliament former Shiite army officer Farouk al-Araji for interior minister and Sunni General Abdel Qader Jassim, commander of Iraqi ground forces, for defence.
But Deputy Speaker Khaled al-Attiya said the parliament session had been postponed "until further notice".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox News Sunday: "I really do believe they'll get it settled in the next few days. But the important thing here is that they get it right.
"And when they get it right, and they will get it right, everybody will forget how long it took them. What will matter is that they have the very strongest ... defence and interior ministries."
Political sources said the powerful Shiite Alliance was deadlocked on a nominee for the Interior Ministry post. They said the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the dominant parties in the Alliance, had threatened to reject Mr Araji's nomination.
"Some want to tell him (Mr Maliki) that even though he is a prime minister he must consult with his bloc on jobs," one senior Shiite source told Reuters.
Meanwhile, an Interior Ministry official denied a state television report that four Russian embassy employees kidnapped in Baghdad had been released.
A Russian embassy employee in Baghdad was killed on at the weekend and four other embassy staff were kidnapped when gunmen blocked their vehicle in the capital's western Mansour district.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy said he had heard the media report about their release, but that he had received no word on this from Iraqi authorities.
Reuters