BBC
Thursday, November 16, 2006

Iraq's higher education minister has said he fears some ministry workers kidnapped by gunmen on Tuesday have been tortured and killed.
Abd Dhiab said some of the 70 or so captives who have since been released were badly beaten.

They were among scores of workers taken hostage when the gunmen raided an education ministry building in Baghdad.

In continuing violence meanwhile, gunmen killed nine people in an ambush on a bakery in the east of the capital.

'Broken limbs'

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Dhiab said he was "very much concerned" for the remaining captives' well-being.

He said there were "rumours and reports that some of them have been killed, even a number of those who have been freed were treated very badly, some of them had their legs and hands broken".

Mr Dhiab said about 40 people taken from the higher education ministry research facility were still missing. He had earlier said about 150 people were taken captive, and that 70 to 80 were still being held.

The Iraqi prime minister's office however has said that out of a group of 40 hostages, no more than five were still being held.

Mr Dhiab has said he will suspend co-operation with the government until the remaining hostages are released.

"I am stepping down until something is done actively [to improve security], not just talk," he said.

'Pools of blood'

In continuing bloodshed in Baghdad, police said gunmen opened fire on customers and workers in the bakery in the religiously-mixed neighbourhood of Zayouna.

Most bakeries in the capital are run by members of Iraq's Shia majority and are frequently targeted by Sunni militants.

The attack left pools of blood on the floor as people tried to flee in panic.

"The gunmen stormed into the bakery and killed workers while they were baking. They had done nothing bad," the Associated Press news agency quoted an unnamed man outside the store as saying.

In other violence, at least three civilians were killed in two explosions elsewhere in the capital.

A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in the Amal neighbourhood, killing at least one person, while a blast on Palestine Street in the east of the city killed two others.

The US military also announced the deaths of four of its soldiers in Iraq.

Two were killed by a roadside bomb and another was killed in action in north-east Diyala province on Wednesday; a fourth died in an operation in Baghdad on Tuesday.