Gunmen release 42 students in Iraq

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

BAGHDAD - Iraqi police say gunmen have released the 42 college students they kidnapped earlier in the day near the northern city of Mosul.

Brig. Gen. Khalif Abdul-Sattar says the gunmen initially released the only two girls aboard the hijacked bus. They later set free remaining occupants after making sure they were not members of the security forces.

The bus carrying the students was ambushed Sunday morning on the main highway linking Mosul with Baghdad.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080406/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[maddezmom]

1. Clashes kill 22 in Baghdad Shi'ite stronghold

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Twenty-two people were killed and 55 wounded in clashes in Baghdad, police said on Sunday, the worst eruption of violence in the capital since Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called his fighters off the streets a week ago.

Near the northern city of Mosul, a group of roughly 40 students were kidnapped by gunmen for several hours before Iraqi security forces freed them.

The violence in Sadr's Baghdad stronghold, the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, follows a week of relative calm after clashes throughout the south and Shi'ite neighborhoods of the capital.

It comes only days before U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. commander General David Petraeus are due to deliver key testimony to the U.S. Congress on progress in Iraq.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080406/ts_nm/iraq_dc_9