by Sam Dagher and Ammar Karim
BAGHDAD - Thirty people were found shot dead in a known troublespot on the Iraq-Syrian border Wednesday and a suicide truck bomb attack on Baghdad`s agriculture ministry and a hotel occupied by US contractors killed four and wounded 40.
Also in Baghdad, Iraq`s outgoing planning minister Mahdi al-Hafidh escaped an assassination attempt that killed two of his guards and wounded one, an Iraqi official told AFP.
The attack happened around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) near the Saudi embassy in the upscale Mansur area on the capital`s west side, undersecretary of culture Maysun al-Damluji said.
In the latest episode of gruesome violence, Iraqi security forces retrieved the bodies of at least 30 people, all shot in the head or chest, near the restive Iraqi-Syrian border town of Qaim.
"We have now 30 bodies and the search is ongoing to find the others," said General Jassim Dulaimi from the police force in Ramadi, the region`s capital.
The dead were found in a village called Al-Rumana on the lush bank of the Euphrates River and one officer said they could be Iraqi soldiers.
The victims were dressed in civilian clothes and had been dead for a week. One of the dead was identified as a policeman who had gone missing a week earlier.
Qaim itself, where insurgents are suspected of regularly crossing into Iraq from Syria, is the site of regular clashes between rebels and US forces.
Despite a massive US-led assault on the former rebel bastion of Fallujah in November, the Iraqi government has been unable to reassert control over Anbar, a stronghold of Islamic fighters and Saddam Hussein loyalists.
In other bloodshed, a total of 25 Iraqis were killed in different attacks from Kirkuk in the north to Basra in the south, including the massive blast in the capital, according to security sources.
A US soldier was killed and another wounded in a Baghdad bomb blast, the US army said, raising the number of American military deaths in Iraq to more than 1,500, according to a Pentagon tally.
This came after rebels carried out a synchronised attack aimed at a hotel occupied by US contractors and security guards.
Iraq`s defence ministry said four people died in the attack, while the US embassy said 40 were wounded, including 30 US contractors.
Gunmen, some in police uniforms, killed two security guards before a garbage truck barreled its way into a parking lot behind the agriculture ministry and the al-Sadeer hotel.
The blast gouged a six-foot deep (two-metre) and 12-foot wide crater in the parking lot and knocked out windows of the hotel, home to security guards and westerners involved in Iraq`s rebuilding effort.
More than two dozen vehicles were twisted, burnt and thrown upside down, piled into a small mound of metal and spewing white smoke. An annex to the ministry was charred and damaged.
Ambulance sirens screamed and dozens of police cordoned off the area as a thick curtain of black smoke hung over the street not far from the central Fardous Square where a huge statue of Saddam once stood. Fire trucks and US soldiers rushed to the scene.
The attack began at 6:30 am (0330 GMT) when rocket-propelled grenade fire opened from a car on to a checkpoint sealing off the main road to the ministry and hotel.
"I saw a black BMW pull up to the checkpoint and shoot one guard. There was a change of guard at the time. The BMW killed the guard and cleared the way for the garbage truck to enter," said 23-year-old mechanic Haidar Hamid.
Within minutes, two men in police uniforms approached a second checkpoint further up the street and shot dead one security guard. As chaos ensued, the garbage truck raced through into the parking lot.
The Iraq chapter of the Al-Qaeda terror network headed by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement.
"The mujahadeen (holy warriors) opened fire on the police and the national guard who were charged with security for the Jews. And when our access was guaranteed, the heroes charged and detonated their explosives," said the statement, which could not be verified.
In another Internet and video statement, the Islamic Army in Iraq, a militant group that has taken several foreigners hostage, said it abducted two Sudanese men for collaborating with US forces.
"After they were interrogated, their case was referred to the religious committee which will decide their fate," the statement said, adding that the group had repeatedly warned "those who help the Americans in one way or another, including by working in the occupation camps."
A video carrying the name of the Islamic Army in Iraq showed the two men reading a text in which they identified themselves and admitted to their "mistake" in working as drivers for a Turkish firm.
Amid the violence, the election-winning Shiite and Kurdish blocs met to hammer out a joint document stating the goals and vision of a coalition government.
"Things are moving forward, we will see a principal of understanding signed by the two blocs within a couple of days," Adnan Ali, an aide to the Shiite front-runner for prime minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari.

03/09/2005 17:15 GMT