Pupils killed in mortar attack on Baghdad school

Mortar shells rained down today on a girls’ secondary school in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20, witnesses and police said. At least seven other people died in a series of bombings and shootings across the capital.

Also today, US troops captured 21 suspected terrorists including an al-Qaida courier in a series of raids in Baghdad and Sunni areas north and west of the capital, the US command said. Three of the suspects were believed to have close ties to the leadership of al Qaida in Iraq, the military said.