Violence kills 27 in Iraq

2006-11-01 22:08

Baghdad - At least 27 people were killed in new attacks in Iraq on Wednesday, as police searched for at least 40 Shi'ites abducted by suspected Sunni gunmen along a notoriously dangerous highway just north of Baghdad.

The US military reported the death of one solider in fighting on Tuesday in volatile Anbar province west of the capital.

Meanwhile, frustration with the poor turnout in Iraq's parliament flared, with the body's speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani having to be physically restrained from attacking a Sunni lawmaker.

The abductions on Tuesday near the town of Tarmiyah were another outbreak of sectarian violence in a region where scores were killed last month in reprisal killings among formerly friendly Shi'ite and Sunni neighbours in the city of Balad.

Attack on wedding

At least 40 travellers were missing and feared abducted, said an officer at the joint co-operation centre in the city of Tikrit, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The number killed in a suicide-bomb attack on a Shi'ite wedding in Baghdad on Tuesday rose overnight to 23, including nine children. Another 19 were still being treated at the hospital.

The attack, in which a bomber drove an explosives-rigged car into a crowd outside the bride's home, resembled recent killings aimed at sparking Shi'ite retaliation and pushing Iraq toward all-out civil war - a stated goal of al-Qaeda in Iraq extremist group.

Police said US and Iraqi forces on Tuesday night stormed an office in the southwestern hamlet of Ahrar belonging to the al-Sadr organisation, sponsors of the feared Mahdi Army militia linked to sectarian murders and other violence.

The troops, using US air cover, arrested five followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said an army spokesperson.

- SAPA