Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Five employees of Red Crescent were killed on Saturday morning in a neighborhood in southern Baghdad, a well-informed police source said.

    The employees of Red Crescent was traveling in a car in Baiyaa neighborhood in southern Baghdad while they were attacked by unknown gunmen in two cars, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, adding five employees are killed and another one is injured.

    Also on Saturday, at least three residents were killed and up to ten others wounded when several mortar rounds landed on a residential area in southern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

    "Several mortar rounds landed on the Hay-al-Risalah neighborhood at around midday, killing at least three inhabitants and injuring ten others, including women and children," the source said.

    Moreover, the source said police patrols collected seven unidentified bullet-riddled bodies from different parts of the capital on Saturday, some of them were bound and blindfolded showing signs of torture.

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