| Suspected Sunni insurgents abducted nine Shiites on Monday after pulling them off a minibus on its way to a predominantly Shiite area south of Baghdad. The bus had left the capital on its way to Kut when it was stopped at 6:30 p.m. at a checkpoint set up by the suspected insurgents. The attackers checked the IDs of the passengers, then drove away with them apparently after determining they were Shiites, police Lt. Hadi Hassan said. They let the driver and three or four passengers go because they were Sunnis, but they stole the minibus, said Hassan, an officer in Madain, a town near the area where the bus was stopped. |