Baghdad - As many as 60 or more passengers of six hijacked microbuses were killed by militants Thursday in Baghdad, eyewitnesses told the official TV channel al-Iraqiya, in the latest horrific incident of sectarian violence in conflict-torn Iraq.
The exact number of victims was not yet known, but the figure was believed to be in the range of 60, as each of the six microbuses could carry up to 11 passengers.
Unidentified militants had hijacked the six microbuses along with passengers in the mainly Shiite district of al-Kazimiya in western Baghdad.
Soon afterwards, al-Iraqiya television said dozens of bodies had been found.
The Ministry of Defence decided to set up checkpoints again in the western Baghdad districts after they had been removed a few days earlier.
The hijacking and subsequent killings came only two days after uniformed gunmen kidnapped more than 150 employees at a research institute of the Ministry of Research and Higher Education in central Baghdad.
The fate of those victims remained unclear, the ministry said.
A source who requested anonymity told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa: "We are worried they might have been killed." So far, only 70 out of more than 150 kidnapped were released, leaving 80 victims still being held by their captors.
Meanwhile in other violence Thursday, seven workers in a bakery shop were killed Thursday, and two others were wounded when militants opened fire at their shop, said police sources.
Sources told dpa that unidentified gunmen raided a bakery shop early Thursday morning in the Ziyona district in eastern Baghdad. The incident was apparently motivated by sectarianism, as bakers in Iraq are traditionally Shiites.
Two other Iraqis were killed and five wounded when a car bomb exploded in Palestine street in eastern Baghdad, while a third was killed and two wounded when an explosive device attached to a bicycle exploded in Aamel district in southern Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the US military on Thursday reported the deaths of four of its soldiers in clashes in the past 48 hours. One soldier was shot dead Wednesday in Dijala province, while the second was killed Tuesday in an attack on a patrol in Baghdad.
Two others were killed Wednesday and two wounded when a roadside bomb targeting their vehicle was exploded in Dijala.
The US military also reported a Thursday air raid near the town of Yusufiya south of Baghdad, killing nine "terrorists." Ground troops later detained nine more suspects.