Deaths, disappearances plague Iraq

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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15170179.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than 30 people were killed or found dead in political or sectarian violence across the country Monday, and 26 more were seized in brazen kidnappings, police said.

The dead included four Iraqi soldiers killed in a suicide bombing in northern Iraq, the first such attack in the Kurdish-ruled province of Dahuk.

Gunmen dressed in military fatigues burst into the offices of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce and a nearby mobile phone company Monday, seizing 26 people in a daylight raid in a mostly Shiite area of the capital.

The kidnappings occurred around noon when 15 four-wheel-drive vehicles carrying the gunmen pulled into the main shopping area of Al-Karradah, an upscale residential district where several Shiite politicians live.