Baghdad bus station kidnapping leaves 20 dead

GUNMEN who stormed a bus station north-east of Baghdad kidnapped 24 people, killing all but four of them.

An Iraqi general said the victims were Shi’ites, but police said their identities were unclear.

The gunmen arrived in several cars at the bus station in Muqdadiyah, about 96 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, at 6am, forced the captives into four vehicles they commandeered at the scene and sped away, officials said.

Major General Ahmed al-Awad, the commander of the Iraqi army’s 5th division, told government television that 20 bodies were later found and the victims were Shi’ites. He said four people were rescued.

Mr al-Awad said the attackers separated the Shi’ites from the Sunnis, then took the Shi’ites to the nearby village of Ballour.

He said nearly 400 Iraqi soldiers raided the village and rescued the four survivors.

The other captives had already been moved to the area where the bodies were found, he said.

Mr al-Awad accused local police of failing to intervene.

The Muqdadiyah area has a slight Sunni majority and is located in a province where sectarian tension runs high.

The massacre is part of a surge in sectarian violence which began on Sunday when Shi’ite gunmen rampaged through a Baghdad neighbourhood killing Sunnis.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that sectarian unrest was threatening the future of the nation.

“We all have the last chance to reconcile and agree among each other on avoiding conflict and blood. If we fail, God forbid, I don’t know what the fate of Iraq will be,” he told parliament.