IRAQ: A group of students on their way to end-of-year exams were among up to 24 people massacred by gunmen at a bogus checkpoint, in one of the most shocking sectarian attacks in the country in recent weeks.
The 12 students, who were studying at al-Yarmouk University in Baquba, 64km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, were among passengers hauled by the gunmen from their convoy of three minibuses early yesterday morning.
According to local police, the passengers were separated on the side of the road into Sunni Arabs and non-Sunni Arabs. The non-Sunnis, including 19 Shia Turkomen and two Kurds, were then shot. Some tried to escape but were gunned down.
"The attackers dragged them one by one from their cars and executed them," police said.
The dead also included several elderly men. One person was wounded. Four Sunni Arab passengers who survived the ordeal were later helping police with their inquiries.
The attack came a day after police discovered seven severed heads in banana boxes by the roadside in Baquba, a mixed Sunni-Shia town which has seen a surge in violence.
Another head, that of a local Sunni cleric, was perched on top of the boxes. A note with the heads said: "This is the fate of every traitor. Hell will be his final destination."
Police believe the seven beheaded men were Sunni cousins who worked together driving lorries for foreign contractors.
Elsewhere in Baquba, attackers armed with machine guns and grenade-launchers attacked a police checkpoint, killing six officers and one civilian, and injuring five other people.
In other weekend violence, 33 people died in Basra when a suicide bomber attacked a busy local market. It was one of the worst bombings in predominantly Shia Basra since the US-led war started in 2003.
Tensions in the port city worsened yesterday when a Sunni religious group accused the Shia-dominated security forces of killing 12 unarmed worshippers in a mosque in revenge for the bombing.
Police said they had been following up evidence that gunmen were hiding in a mosque and had shot dead nine "terrorists" in self-defence.
Amid the mounting sectarian and gang violence, Iraq's political leaders remained at odds over who will run the country's armed forces and police yesterday.
Legislators who were gathering in the parliament to vote for the key posts of ministers of defence and the interior were told that the session had been postponed until further notice, after an aborted attempt by prime minister Nuri al-Maliki to reach consensus among members of the new, but already fractious, government of national unity.
Mr al-Maliki has threatened to present his own nominees to parliament if political blocs fail to agree on candidates.
Government sources had said leaders were close to a deal to present to parliament yesterday former Shia army officer Farouk al-Araji for interior minister and Sunni general Abdel Qader Jassim, commander of Iraqi ground forces, for defence. However deputy speaker Khaled al-Attiya said the session had been postponed "until further notice".
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told Fox News yesterday: "I really do believe they'll get it settled in the next few days but the important thing here is that they get it right.
"And when they get it right, and they will get it right, everybody will forget how long it took them. What will matter is that they have the very strongest . . . defence and interior ministries."
Political sources said the powerful Shia Alliance was deadlocked on a nominee for the Interior Ministry post.
They said the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the dominant parties in the alliance, had threatened to reject Mr Araji's nomination.
"Some want to tell him [ Mr Maliki] that even though he is a prime minister, he must consult with his bloc on jobs," a senior Shia source told Reuters.
An interior ministry official denied a state television report that four Russian embassy employees kidnapped in Baghdad had been released. A Russian embassy employee in Baghdad was killed on Saturday and four other embassy staff were kidnapped when gunmen blocked their vehicle in the capital's western Mansour district.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy said he heard the media report about their release but had received no word on this from Iraqi authorities.