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Roadside bombs target Iraqi police, officials say

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi police commander was killed during an assault on at least six police officers in Iraq's capital Saturday, said an Iraqi Interior Ministry official.

In a separate incident, two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession in the central Karrada district of Baghdad about 10:50 a.m. (2:50 a.m. ET) Saturday, Baghdad police told CNN.

The blasts, which targeted an Iraqi police patrol, wounded four people -- including three police officers, authorities said.

In central Baghdad on Saturday evening, gunmen wearing Iraqi National police uniforms driving in three vehicles abducted three Iraqi police officers as they patrolled in the al-Massbah neighborhood, an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry told CNN.

Earlier on Saturday, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi national police patrol in the Saydiya neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, killing one police officer and wounding another.

Also Saturday, six Sunni men were shot to death execution-style by gunmen who stormed their home in a village south of the Iraqi capital, an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry told CNN.

The official said the gunmen burst into the home in the Mashhada village, near Yusufiyah, around 5 a.m. and separated the men from the women and children before shooting the men.

Relatives of the victims told local police that the men had received death threats from Sunni insurgents after participating in a reconciliation conference with Shiite tribes in Mahmoudiya last month.

Yusufiyah is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Baghdad.

Web video shows execution

The Islamic State of Iraq on Saturday posted video on the Web showing the execution of 18 kidnapped Iraqi security guards.

The video from the al Qaeda-linked group lasts 3 minutes and 43 seconds and opens showing the men blindfolded in a room. They are in three lines of six, the front line seated; the middle line kneeling; the top line standing. A guard -- whose head is covered -- stands off to the side, pointing a rifle at them.

In the last 21 seconds, the video cuts to a scene showing the men kneeling in a field. Two other men holding pistols, their faces covered, stand behind the security guards. A third man carrying a flag stands off to the side.

Then, a voice says in Arabic, "God be praised," and the firing begins. Judging by the way the bodies lurch forward, it appears that two other people are firing from outside the camera's view.

CNN was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the tape, but it was posted on at least two Web sites that typically carry the group's messages and videos.

One of the Web sites said the men were killed to retaliate for the alleged rape of a Sunni woman by police, whose ranks are made up largely of Shiites.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said the alleged rape never happened.

Friday, Iraq's Ministry of Interior would not confirm that the dead policemen were the same as those claimed to have been kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq.

The group claimed the men also were kidnapped and killed in retaliation for the alleged rape.

In other news:

• Three American soldiers died Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded next to their vehicle in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

• On Friday, two soldiers and an interpreter died northwest of Baghdad when a roadside bomb went off while they were clearing a route northwest of the capital, the military said Saturday. A third U.S. soldier was wounded. The soldiers' unit and names were not released.

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq, Basim Mahdi and Jennifer Deaton contributed to this report.

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