A roadside bomb blew up a bus, killing 24 people in it as gunmen ambushed and shot dead five workers of a power station in a day of widespread violence across Iraq that left 63 people dead on Tuesday. Among the dead was a British soldier who died in a mortar attack in the south, while the US military announced that an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Monday. Also Tuesday, the spokesman of a political coalition was kidnapped. The worst carnage occurred near the northern industrial city of Beiji where a bus carrying 24 soldiers was hit by a roadside bomb, said Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari. He said all on board died. Following the blast, a curfew was imposed in Beiji. A few hours later, a bomb-laden car blew up near a bank in the once-fashionable Karradah neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 14 people and injuring 37, said police Lt Col Abbas Mohammed Salman. He said the target was well chosen because Iraqi security forces draw their salaries from the bank on the first of every month.
Also on Tuesday, unidentified gunmen ambushed a mini-bus, carrying 11 employees of Al-Taji power station in Baghdad. The gunmen opened fire, killing five and injuring the other six, said police Maj Khalil Ibrahim. Separately, 45 Shias from Najaf were kidnapped as they travelled home past the Sunni rebel stronghold of Ramadi on Monday, the Najaf governor said on Tuesday. Police could not immediately confirm the kidnappings
Meanwhile, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and six civilians in Muqdadiyah in northern Iraq, said the joint Iraqi-US military coordination centre.
In other violence Tuesday, 12 people were killed, mostly by bombs. The bodies of two men with bullet wounds were found in different places in Baghdad Tuesday, police said. Gunmen kidnapped Mohammed Shihab al-Dulaimi, the spokesman of MARAM, a coalition of political parties that reject the Dec 15, 2005, parliamentary elections as fraudulent. The kidnappers contacted MARAM officials and demanded a ransom, said Hatam Hattab al-Janabi of MARAM. He did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, a British soldier was killed in a mortar attack on a base in Basra, a spokeswoman of BritainÂ’s Defence Ministry said. The infantry soldier died after being airlifted from a base in Basra to a field hospital outside the city, said the spokeswoman on customary condition of anonymity in line with ministry policy.