Insurgent attacks kill Iraqi police, pilgrims, TV anchor

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgent attacks Sunday in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Baquba, and Basra killed more than two dozen police and civilians, local officials told CNN.

The deadliest attack came in the southern city of Basra, where insurgents kidnapped and killed 13 police academy employees, interior ministry spokesman Gen. Abdul Karin Khalaf said.

The gunmen nabbed the employees as they left work Sunday afternoon, he said.

Their bodies were later discovered in a nearby area, the spokesman said.

In Baghdad, a string of attacks killed nine people, most of them Sunni pilgrims returning from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a Baghdad emergency police official said.

Gunmen attacked two buses carrying the pilgrims near Mohammed Sakran cemetery in northern Baghdad, killing one and kidnapping six others, the official said. The bodies of the six were later found dumped near a hospital not too far from the cemetery, the official said.

The pilgrims were on their way home to the town of Hibhib near Baquba, north of Baghdad, the official said.

Their bodies were among 31 bullet-riddled corpses found by police on Sunday dumped across the Iraqi capital, evidence of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence.

Also among the bodies found Sunday were two employees of an Iraqi TV channel: Naqsheen Hamed, a news presenter for al-Atyaf TV, and her driver Enes Qasim, police said.

They went missing on the way to work Sunday morning and their bodies were later found near Haifa street in central Baghdad, an official with U.S-funded al-Iraqiya TV said.

Also in the Iraqi capital, a suicide car bomber detonated near an Iraqi police patrol in northern Baghdad around 6 p.m. (10 a.m. ET), killing two police officers and wounding two others, the official said.

Attacks in and near the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba left five people dead on Sunday.

Gunmen killed two Iraqi police officers in Baquba when they attacked their patrol Sunday morning, a Diyala Joint Coordination Center official said.

South of Baquba, gunmen shot and killed the headmaster of a primary school as he was returning home Sunday afternoon, the official said.

North of Baquba in Muqdadiya, two civilians were killed and two others were wounded by gunmen, the official said.

Prime minister's convoy attacked

Also Sunday, gunmen fired on Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's convoy, wounding one guard, in one of the capital's southern suburbs Sunday, an Iraqi government spokesman said. Al-Maliki was not present in the convoy, the spokesman said.

After the attack, the U.S. military and Iraqi forces conducted a search for those responsible.

They detained one person and confiscated two weapons, U.S. military sources said. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense has launched an investigation into the incident.

The attacks comes a day after al-Maliki told U.S. President George W. Bush that he answers first to the Iraqi government and people, according to an Iraqi official. (Full story)

Meanwhile, the chief lawyer for Saddam Hussein warned President Bush in a letter Saturday that if his client is found guilty in the Dujail trial, there will be more strife in Iraq and the region. (Full story)

Coalition says 17 insurgents killed Sunday

U.S.-led coalition aircraft killed 17 insurgents armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades after they attacked ground troops Sunday, according to a statement issued by Multi-National Corps - Iraq.

The insurgents were trying to prevent coalition troops from arresting "suspected terrorists" north of the Iraqi capital in Balad, according to the statement.

The coalition convoy was attacked by an armed gang twice while traveling on their route and after "positive identification of the enemy," aircraft fired upon the insurgents with "precision fires," the statement said.

Troops killed four militants in the first attack and 13 in the second ambush. No coalition forces were wounded in either attack.

The military said ground troops "successfully continued their operation" and detained three suspected terrorists. No additional information on their arrests was issued.

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.

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