Iraq violence: 11 killed in bus attack

Baghdad (Iraq): Gunmen open fired on a bus carrying Iraqi civilians to work on Wednesday.

They then planted a bomb aboard the

vehicle that exploded when rescue workers arrived, an official said. In all, 11 Iraqis were killed and six wounded.

Elsewhere, seven Iraqis were killed in other attacks, including four off-duty policemen in Ramadi.

The violence followed a suicide truck bomb attack in a crowded market in Tal Afar late Tuesday.

The suicide attack had killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 130 in a city cited by President Bush as a success story in battling insurgents.

Meanwhile, leaders of Sunni-Arab, Shiite and Kurdish tribes were holding a conference in Baghdad to discuss ways of promoting unity in Iraq and reducing sectarian violence.

Legislators also met in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone to discuss procedural issues such as the formation of parliamentary committees.

Incoming Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had said on Tuesday that he had almost finished assembling a Cabinet.

He added that it was the final step in establishing a national unity government.

US officials had predicted insurgents would step up attacks to try to block the new administration.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said al-Maliki would soon launch a four-part plan to restore order by securing Baghdad, Basra and eight other cities.

Which will promote reconciliation, build public confidence in the police, and army and disband sectarian militias.

Wednesday's attack took place near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

It began when gunmen stopped a bus taking employees to work at the state-run Diyala Electronics Co., which makes products such as televisions.

After ordering women off the bus, the insurgents shot and killed the men inside, said Adnan Hamad, a company spokesman.

Another company bus then stopped and rushed to rescue the wounded. When the door of the bus opened, a bomb exploded inside, he said.

Hamad said the final death toll was 11 killed and six wounded.

In Baghdad, gunmen also fatally shot Mohammed Musaab Talal al-Amari, a Shiite who directs the Defense Ministry's public relations office, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein.

Al-Amari was on his way to work when his car was stopped by another vehicle in the residential neighborhood of Bayaa, Hussein said.

Three men then got out of the vehicle and fired, killing him and wounding an Iraqi pedestrian, he said.

In two other shootings in Baghdad, suspected insurgents killed a Shiite taxi driver and a Shiite who once belonged to Iraq's disbanded Baath party, police said.

In another similar attack a civilian driver was killed about 80 miles south of the capital.

Gunmen also killed four off-duty policemen in an ambush on Tuesday in Ramadi. Ramadi is located in the western Anbar province, where many Sunni-led insurgent groups are based.

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The suicide attack in Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, occurred on Tuesday evening as shoppers were scurrying to finish their purchases before closing, police said.

The attacker had attracted a crowd to his pickup truck by hawking flour at half-price, police said.

Lt. Col. Ali Rasheed of the Interior Ministry said the main target of the bombing might have been a police station within the market area.

The director of the city hospital, Saleh Qado, said 20 people were killed and 70 wounded, but the US command said on Wednesday that 134 Iraqis were wounded, at least 24 of them critically.

As casualties mounted at the local hospital, the overflow of wounded were taken to nearby coalition medical facilities, the command said.

Some of them were also flown on coalition aircraft to hospitals in Mosul and Tikrit.

Vehicle bombs have killed at least 500 Iraqis in 2006, out of a total of 3,525 killed in war-related violence in 2006. These numbers include civilians, government officials, and police and security officials.

In March, President Bush praised American efforts to stabilize Tal Afar, saying he had confidence in America’s strategy and that success in the city gives reason for hope for a free Iraq.

US and Iraqi forces launched an operation in September to clear the city of insurgents, which was the second such attempt in a year.

However, by the end of September a woman suicide bomber slipped into a crowd of recruits, killing at least six people and wounding 30.

Since then, the city has been hit by repeated suicide attacks.

Tal Afar's population is a volatile mix of Turkomen, Kurds and Arabs, which complicates efforts to control crime in the city.

Trouble started in 2003 when Kurdish fighters took over the city, angering the majority Turkomen population.

Insurgents are also believed to have used Tal Afar as a hub for smuggling weapons and fighters from Syria.