Bus ambush claims 13

2005-07-19 10:30

Baghdad - Thirteen people were killed when insurgents ambushed a bus carrying workers to a United States army base near the Iraqi city of Baquba on Tuesday, a interior ministry official said.

Ten of the workers were killed when the bus came under heavy gunfire from the attackers near Baquba, which lies northeast of Baghdad. Another three died when the bus driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the car carrying the gunmen, the official said.

The bus driver was also wounded.

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

One of those killed was a policeman, while the other was a member of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the political party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

"The IED (improvised explosive device) was targeted at a passing police patrol in which one policeman was killed and one wounded," police colonel Adel Zaein Alabideen said.

Iraq is reeling under a blitz of attacks since Friday in which dozens have perished and scores more wounded.

The deadliest attack came in the southern Iraqi town of Al-Musayyib on Saturday evening when a suicide bomber blew up a fuel tanker killing 83 people and wounding 151.

- AFP