Headless corpses dumped in Iraqi base

IRAQI officials have found 41 bullet-riddled or beheaded bodies at two sites and they said yesterday they believe some of the corpses are Iraqi soldiers kidnapped and killed by insurgents.

At least 30 American contractors, meanwhile, were wounded by a suicide bombing near a hotel.

In another attack, interim planning minister Mahdi al-Hafidh escaped assassination after gunmen opened fire on his convoy in Baghdad. One of his guards was killed and two others were wounded, police said.

A US soldier was killed and another was injured when a roadside bomb detonated as they were patrolling in the capital, the military said.

Authorities found 26 of the corpses late on Tuesday in a field near Rumana, a village about 12 miles east of the western city of Qaim, near the Syrian border.

Each of the bodies had been riddled with bullets apparently several days earlier. They were found wearing civilian clothes and one of the dead was a woman, police Captain Muzahim al-Karbouli said.

South of Baghdad in Latifiya, Iraqi troops on Tuesday found 15 headless bodies in a building inside an abandoned former army base, Defence Ministry Captain Sabah Yassin said. The bodies included 10 men, three women and two children. Their identities were not known.

Capt Yassin said some of the dead men in Latifiya were thought to have been part of a group of Iraqi soldiers who were kidnapped by insurgents in the area two weeks ago.

In the Baghdad suicide bombing, a rubbish truck packed with explosives blew up outside the Agriculture Ministry and the Sadeer Hotel, which is used by Western contractors, killing at least three people, and wounding the 30 Americans, officials said. The bomber also died.

The US Embassy said the 30 injured Americans were among 40 people hurt in the blast, but no Americans were killed. In an Internet statement, al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the Sadeer, calling it the "hotel of the Jews."

Police said a group of insurgents wearing police uniforms first shot to death a guard at the Agriculture Ministry's gate, allowing the truck to enter a compound the ministry shares with the adjacent Sadeer hotel.

Officials at al-Kindi hospital said at least three dead and eight wounded were taken there. Ibn al-Nafis hospital counted at least 27 wounded, said Dr Falleh al-Jubouri.

Elsewhere, guerrillas struck a police patrol with a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra, killing one policeman and wounding three more.

The attack against Iraq's interim planning minister was the latest by insurgents who have repeatedly targeted top Iraqi officials.

A woman who answered Mr al-Hafidh's mobile phone and refused to be identified confirmed he had survived the attack.