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Sunnis ambush Shiite convoy; 10 killed, 50 missing

At least 52 other people are killed in violence in Iraq. No U.S. troops are reported killed.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 12, 2006

BAGHDAD - Sunni gunmen ambushed a convoy of minibuses Saturday night at a fake checkpoint on a dangerous highway south of Baghdad, killing 10 Shiite passengers and kidnapping about 50. Across the country at least 52 other people were killed in violence or were found dead.

Police said the mass kidnapping and killing was near the volatile town of Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad in the so-called Triangle of Death.

Shiite Muslims, a minority in that district, have routinely come under attack from Sunni insurgents who control the territory. The highway passing through the region from Baghdad leads to Najaf, Iraq's holiest Shiite city.

Sectarian revenge killings in Baghdad and the mixed Sunni-Shiite regions surrounding the capital have reached civil war proportions. Morgues across a wide sweep of the center of the country are full as Shiite militiamen and death squads range through the region killing Sunnis.

The Shiites are falling in large numbers as well in attacks from a growing network of Sunni insurgent groups, including radical organizations such as al-Qaida in Iraq. The U.S. military has admitted in recent weeks that its mission to pacify the capital has not met expectations. And now the problem appears to spreading outward.

The spiraling violence coincides with increasingly strident demands from the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for American forces to pull back into bases and leave Iraq's cities and towns under the control of his military and police forces. But the highly partisan troops and police are believed to be involved in sectarian killings themselves or to be looking the other way, allowing Shiite death squads and militias to operate unmolested.

There were no reported deaths among America's 152,000 troops in Iraq on Saturday. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, oversaw a Veterans Day ceremony at which 75 members of the armed forces from 33 countries were sworn in as American citizens.

"The weeks and months ahead will require courage and determination," Casey said. "But succeed we will."

In Baghdad, eight people died and at least 38 were wounded when two bombs hidden under parked cars exploded among noontime shoppers in Hafidh al-Qadhi square. Police and a medical workers said at least 38 others were injured.

A Slovak and Polish soldier were killed overnight by a roadside bomb, near Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, Slovakian Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Gemela said. They were the 18th Polish troop and fourth Slovakian troop killed.

[Last modified November 12, 2006, 01:49:46]