Iraq police find 41 bodies

Police found the bodies of 41 Iraqis beheaded or shot by insurgents at two sites in the Sunni heartland, the latest in a series of mass killings by guerilla groups.

In Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on the planning minister's convoy yesterday, police said. Minister Mehdi al-Hafidh was unharmed but one of his bodyguards was killed in the ambush, just hours after a suicide bomber struck near a central hotel.

The bomber detonated a garbage truck packed with explosives outside the Sadir hotel that is used by Iraqi police and foreign contractors, killing two policemen.

The US embassy said 30 US contractors were among 40 people wounded in the blast, which shook central Baghdad, blew a huge crater in the road and shattered windows in nearby houses. It blasted away part of the Agriculture Ministry's façade.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said it was behind the bombing - part of its campaign to bring down the government and drive out US troops.

In an Internet statement, Zarqawi's group said gunmen had opened fire on police to allow a suicide bomber to attack the hotel - which it described as "the hotel of the Jews".

"The mujahideen opened fire on the police and guards protecting the Jews and when the entrance was clear, the hero... blew up the infidels," the group said, adding that the attack was timed to avoid harming any Muslim passers-by.

Huge plumes of thick smoke blackened the Baghdad sky as police, ambulances and fire engines rushed to the hotel.

In a separate attack in the capital, a roadside bomb killed a US soldier yesterday and wounded another, the military said. Since the invasion in March 2003, at least 1,505 US soldiers have died in Iraq, 1,150 of them killed in action.

In Qaim, 500 kilometres west of Baghdad, the bodies of 26 people, including one woman, were found. A doctor said the victims, in civilian clothes, had been shot two days ago.

Fifteen bodies - some shot, others beheaded - were found just south of Baghdad in the Sunni-dominated area now known as the "triangle of death", Iraqi army sources said.

Insurgents have frequently dumped large numbers of bodies in public places as a warning to others. The victims are usually police, soldiers or Iraqis working with the US military.

An Iraqi militant group, Islamic Army in Iraq, posted an Internet video showing two Sudanese hostages urging other drivers in Iraq not to work with occupation forces.

The group said the men, identified as "the criminals" Mohammed Haroun Hamad and Maher Ataya, would be brought before an Islamic committee to decide their fate. They were employed by a Turkish firm as drivers at an airbase north of Baghdad.

"This work is an abandonment of Islam. I advise others to leave any work with the occupying infidel because the hand of justice will reach them wherever they are," the hostages said, reading from a statement.

Guerillas have tried to tap into the frustration many Iraqis feel over what they say is harassment and heavy-handed tactics by US soldiers battling the insurgency.

Controversy over US tactics in Iraq has been stoked by the fatal shooting of an Italian secret agent during a hostage rescue, and the accidental killing of a Bulgarian soldier.