Suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them, the Iraqi government said.

Gunmen today attacked a vehicle carrying employees of a government agency that cares for Shiite mosques in Iraq, killing 13 of them and wounding eight, the organisation said.

One of Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab groups endorsed the prime minister’s national reconciliation plan today, and the government announced new benefits to help freed detainees return to normal lives.