At least 21 Iraqis were shot dead by gunmen targeting minibus passengers. The gunmen near the village of Ayn Layla northeast of Baghdad stopped vehicles along the road and shot at their occupants, killing 21 people including seven minibus drivers and seven students, police said, according to AFP.
In other violence Sunday, four employees of a telephone exchange in Baghdad's Sadr city neighborhood were shot dead as they arrived for work, said the interior ministry. Two bystanders were also injured in the attack which was carried out by unknown gunmen in the morning.
In the southern city of Basra, a gunbattle broke out after Iraqi police surrounded a Sunni mosque early, leaving at least nine people dead. The standoff took place hours after police stormed four Sunni mosques in Iraq's second-largest city late Saturday and Sunni clerics called on followers to gather in one of the shrines to protect it.
Meanwhile, there were conflicting reports on the fate of four Russian diplomats seized on Saturday when gunmen attacked their vehicle. One of the men abducted was the embassy's third secretary.
Iraqi state television, citing interior ministry sources, said that the four had been released Sunday but neither police sources contacted by AFP or the Russian embassy in Baghdad could verify the claim.
On the political ground, a parliament session was postponed Sunday after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki once again declined to reach a consensus on candidates for the crucial ministers who will run the country's armed forces and police.
According to the AP, Deputy Parliament Speaker Khalid al-Atiya, a Shiite, said that due to the large number of candidates and failure to reach any agreement, the political parties decided "to give the prime minister another chance to have more negotiations."
