Dozens killed in Baghdad attacks

Suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them, the Iraqi government said.

In another attack in the capital today, two car bombs exploded in a commercial district, killing 15 Iraqis, police said.

In northern Baghdad this morning, gunmen set off a car bomb to intercept a minibus carrying employees of the Shiite Endowment, a government agency that cares for Shiite mosques in Iraq, to work, the organisation said. The gunmen then opened fire on the workers, killing 15 of them and wounding seven, said Salah Abdul-Razzaq, an Endowment spokesman, and an Interior Ministry policeman who spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't a spokesman.

AP Television News footage of the aftermath showed shattered glass and shoes in the middle of the highway, with the burned out hulk of the car that exploded on the side of the road.

In another attack in the capital today, two car bombs exploded near one another in western Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and wounding 25, police said.

The explosions occurred at about 9.45 am near a petrol station in Baiyaa, a commercial area of the capital with a mixed Sunni Arab and Shiite population, a policeman said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

A roadside bomb also exploded near an Iraqi army convoy in Yarmouk, a primarily Sunni area of west Baghdad, at 10am today, killing two soldiers and wounding four, said an army captain who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for his security.