Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen attacked a convoy carrying security member of an Iraqi ministry in southeastern Baghdad on Monday, killing one of them and wounding two others, an Interior Ministry source said.

    "Unknown gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying security members of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture while travelling near the Zaiyounah neighborhood," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The attackers showered the convoy with bullets, killing a security member and wounding two others, he added.

    Violence persists in the hub of Iraq despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers across the capital in a major security crackdown on insurgency and sectarian violence in the war-torn country.