31 die in Iraq ambush

2005-07-19 22:03

Baghdad - At least 31 people were killed on Tuesday in Iraq violence, including 13 slaughtered when insurgents ambushed a bus carrying workers to a United States army base, said police and military officials.

Iraq had been reeling under a blitz of attacks since Friday in which more than 150 people had been killed and scores wounded, including a fuel tanker bombing on Saturday, which killed 83 people.

In Baquba, ten workers were killed when a bus came under heavy gunfire from the attackers.

An interior ministry official said another three civilians in a passing car were killed when the bus was out of control and slammed into the vehicle.

New post-Saddam Hussein constitution

In Baghdad, three Sunni Arab members of the constitutional panel were gunned down, hours after President Jalal Talabani said that the new post-Saddam Hussein constitution of Iraq might be ready by the end of July.

Police said in Kirkuk, two people were killed and four others wounded when an Iraqi police patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern oil centre.

One of the dead was a policeman, while the other was a member of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political party of President Jalal Talabani.

A police major was killed when an explosive planted outside the university gates in Saddam Hussein's hometown exploded.

5 civilians injured

Three civilians were killed and four injured when a mortar round exploded in Tallafar, close to the Syrian border.

Hospital director Saleh Mohammed said two insurgents were also killed and five civilians injured in clashes between insurgents and the Iraqi army.

In Tallafar, one civilian was killed and four injured when Iraqi police clashed with insurgents.

Mohammed said police also found two unidentified bodies in Tallafar, while a businessman's body was found in Baiji.

Four Iraqi soldiers and four civilians were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad. The army said the attacks also left eight others wounded, seven of them soldiers.

- AFP