21 Shiites kidnapped and killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Gunmen kidnapped and killed 21 Shiite workers on their way home from Baghdad to the restive province of Diyala to its north, officials and a medic said on Monday.

The workers, employed in Baghdad's popular Shorja market, were abducted on Sunday as they headed home after work by gunmen who ambushed their minibus and took them away to an unknown destination.

Their handcuffed and blindfolded bodies were found near a water treatment plant in Morariyah village in Diyala on Monday, the second most dangerous province in Iraq after Baghdad itself.

"There were six more workers who were kidnapped and are still missing," an official said.

He said the Shiites were from Jaizan al-Imam village and were seized near an area called Ghalibiyah, north of Baghdad.

Dozens of people are kidnapped every week by armed gangs from Iraq's rival Shiite and Sunni communities.