Gunmen kidnap, execute 20 Iraqis in day of violence

BAGHDAD, Iraq – In another day of execution-style slayings in the streets of Iraq, 24 people were kidnapped in a town northeast of the capital Wednesday and all but four of them were later found blindfolded, tortured and shot in the head.

The latest killings between rival Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs followed a series of gruesome incidents the day before, including the slayings of 18 people while they were traveling to or from funerals in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

As the violence continued throughout the country, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Wednesday to discuss the spreading sectarian violence with Iraqi leaders. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told members of parliament that, despite the street battles of the last week that suggested a possible run-up to civil war, no part of Baghdad would be taken over by either Shiite or Sunni fighters.

Accounts of the gruesome kidnappings were fragmented and contradictory, reflecting the deep sectarian divisions. According to the most authoritative accounts, they took place about 6 a.m. in the bus terminal of the religiously mixed town of Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Witnesses said many of those kidnapped were Shiite bus drivers who, along with others in the terminal, were loaded onto four commandeered vehicles and driven away.

“Some of the gunmen were masked and others were not,” said Abbas Ibrahim, a kiosk owner inside the terminal. “They took the Shiite drivers, handcuffed them and ordered them to lie down in their buses.”

“They were asking people one by one whether he is a Sunni or a Shiite,” said Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Ahmed Awad, whose troops tried to overtake the kidnappers.

Awad said the chase led his troops to the village of Baloor, where four of those kidnapped were freed. The bodies of the other 20 were found later in the afternoon, he said.

Al-Maliki’s speech to parliament came five days after a surge in sectarian violence in Baghdad, beginning Saturday with the bombing of a Shiite mosque. On Sunday, Shiite gunmen retaliated by killing Sunni motorists at neighborhood checkpoints and dragged others from their homes and shot them in the street.

Much of the violence has been centered on Baghdad’s southern and western neighborhoods, which the army, along with American troops, has been keeping under tenuous control since the Sunday outbreak.

Al-Maliki said the area would never be wrested from control of the Iraqi army.

“The Iraqi forces are able to defeat them,” he told lawmakers. “They tried and failed and all of their tries will be failures.”