Sepcial Report: Tension accelerates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Five Iraqis, including four bakery workers were killed and two others wounded when unknown gunmen stormed their bakeshop in southern Baghdad on Friday, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

    "Unidentified armed men stormed the al-Sabah bakeshop in Saidiyah district early in the morning and killed four workers and wounded another," the source said on condition of anonymity.

    Afterwards, a police force raced to the scene but was hit by a roadside bomb near the scene, killing a police officer and wounding a policeman, the source said.

    A wave of sectarian reprisal attacks between the main Iraqi Shiite and Sunni communities in the wake of a bombing attack that destroyed a major Shiite shrine in northern Iraq on Feb. 22.

    Insurgents, on the other hand, frequently attack Iraqi security forces in an attempt to cripple the U.S.-backed political process in the war-torn country. Enditem