Drive-by shootings claim 12

2006-05-10 11:24

Baghdad - Shootings by suspected insurgents killed at least 12 Iraqis on Wednesday, including 11 who were driving to work in a company bus and the director of public relations at Iraq's Defence Ministry, police said.

Casualty figures from a suicide truck bomb attack in the northern city of Tal Afar on Tuesday night also rose to 22 dead and 134 wounded, officials said. The US military flew some of the wounded to other cities when the local hospital was overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, efforts continued to reduce sectarian violence in Iraq.

Leaders of Sunni-Arab, Shiite and Kurdish tribes were holding a meeting in Baghdad to discuss ways of promoting the unity of Iraq. Members said Ashraf Qazi, the UN's special envoy in Iraq, had been invited, but UN officials could not confirm that.

Defence official killed

Legislators also met in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone to discuss procedural issues such as the formation of parliamentary committees.

Incoming Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on Tuesday that he had almost finished assembling a cabinet, the final step in establishing a national unity government. US officials had predicted insurgents would step up attacks to try to block the new administration.

Wednesday's worst attack occurred Baqouba, when suspected insurgents riding in a car opened fire on a bus, killing at least 11 Iraqi passengers and wounding three, police said on condition of anonymity out of concern for their own safety.

The victims were heading to work at a state-run electronics company that makes products such as television sets, and the bus was operated by their company, police said.

In Baghdad, suspected insurgents riding in two BMWs assassinated a Defence Ministry official as he drove to work.

One of the BMWs stopped to block the private car of Mohammed Musaab Talal al-Amari, a Shi'ite who directs the ministry's public relations office, said police Captain Jamil Hussein. Three men then got out of the other BMW and opened fire in the residential neighbourhood of Bayaa, killing al-Amari and wounding an Iraqi pedestrian, Hussein said.

In March, US President George W Bush praised American efforts to stabilise Tal Afar, saying he had "confidence in our strategy" and that success in the city "gives reason for hope for a free Iraq."

- AP