At least ten people were killed in Baghdad on Monday when a suicide bomber drove his car into a busload of workers outside of Iraq's oil ministry. 30 others were also wounded in the incident, including several policemen.
It was not immediately clear whether the attack had targeted oil ministry workers or policemen, however Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Al Uloum told reporters that he believed the bomber had aimed the attack at oil workers.
Oil is Iraq's main source of revenue, and employees of the energy sector are frequently targeted in such attacks. Many of those killed in the attack were reportedly ministry employees, according to Reuters, and worked in the nearby compound which houses several Iraqi ministries, including the Ministry of Oil.
"Unfortunately these terrorist operations continue to target innocents," Al Uloum said. Iraqi sources reported that the attack occurred shortly before 8 am local time, as the workers were arriving at work.
The attack was the deadliest on Iraq's oil industry since US-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003 and resistance fighters began targeting the energy sector.
In another attack, 10 gunmen dragged five teachers from their classrooms at the primary school in Muwalha, just south of the Iraqi capital, took them to an empty classroom and shot them, police in nearby Hilla said.
In Amman, the brother of a Jordanian truck driver abducted during his first business trip to Iraq last week said the missing man's tortured and executed body had been found dumped in the desert close to the Jordanian border.
On its part, the US military said three troops had been killed in two roadside bombings, two of them in western Baghdad and a third southeast of the capital.
Meanwhile on Monday, an Egyptian man was kidnapped in Baghdad after gunmen opened fire on the car in which he was travelling with an Iraqi companion. According to Reuters, Iraqi police sources reported that the gunmen kidnapped the Egyptian man, leaving behind the Iraqi passenger.
The man is reportedly an employee of Iraqna, an Egyptian-owned mobile phone company. Iraqna however has denied reports that the kidnapped man is an employee of the company.
"The engineer who was kidnapped today doesn't work for Iraqna mobile company in Iraq, but he works for one of the companies that has contracts with Iraqna in Baghdad," said spokesman Shamil Hanafi.
The Egyptian is one of hundreds of foreigners kidnapped in Iraq, some of whom are ultimately killed by their captors.
Attacks to rise in wake of upcoming referendum
Monday's violence comes just weeks before a nationwide referendum is to be held on October 15 in which the Iraqi general public will vote on a new draft constitution.
The issue has left Iraq deeply divided, as Sunni minority groups feel the constitution is biased towards the nation's Shiite majority.
On Sunday over 1,000 people marched in protest of the proposed constitution in the city of Ramadi, saying that if agreed upon, the constitution would favor Iraq's Kurdish population in northern Iraq as well as pro-Iranian Shiites in the south of the country.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
