Attacks claim 13 Iraqis; 13 cars blown up

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Militants blew up 13 cars in three hours Sunday, injuring at least 20 people, while 13 Iraqis were killed in other violence that fed the turmoil following last month’s contested parliamentary elections.

The day’s worst bloodshed came in eastern Baghdad, where police said gunmen killed five people at a butcher shop and a bomb killed two police officers at a gas station.

Two more Iraqis were slain and five wounded by gunfire at a Sunni mosque in southern Baghdad, while a Shiite sheik was fatally shot at a market in the same part of the city.

Also Sunday:

•Sunni Arabs made their opening bid in what could be protracted negotiations to form a new government. Leaders of the minority’s main political group, the Iraqi Accordance Front, traveled to the northern city of Irbil for a meeting today with the president of the Kurdish region.

•Sudan said six kidnapped embassy employees were freed Saturday, a day after Sudan announced it would close its Baghdad mission as demanded by al-Qaida in Iraq. A Cypriot kidnapped four months ago also was freed after his family paid a $200,000 ransom, a relative said. A Lebanese engineer kidnapped four days ago was also released, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Sunday.

•A 16-year-old who took off to Iraq alone to experience the lives of its people firsthand arrived back in Florida, ending a three-week Middle East odyssey. Farris Hassan had cut school on Dec. 11 and left the United States, traveling to Kuwait, where he thought he could take a taxi into Baghdad. The border was closed for the elections, so he went to stay with family friends in Lebanon, before flying to Baghdad on Christmas.