BAGHDAD, March 28: Nine Iraqis were killed and seven kidnapped in a wave of violence on Tuesday as Shia politicians returned to crucial talks on forming a national unity government. Shootings claimed the lives of four people in Baghdad, and a bomb killed three people outside the house of the local correspondent for US-funded Radio Sawa in Nassiriyah. Two shop owners were shot dead near Baquba. Another 29 people, 21 of them police, were wounded in bombings and shootings.

About 15 gunmen abducted five employees from a currency exchange in Baghdad, stealing $60,000, and a high school teacher was grabbed in a separate incident. The police recovered 14 bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad. —AFP