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.

Sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to flee their homes, a top Iraqi official said. At least 17 people have been killed in fighting.

Attackers grabbed a Sunni Arab policeman and his brother and shot both of them dead outside their home to the south of Baghdad today.