BASRA, April 14: Eleven employees of a building company in Basra were kidnapped and killed on Thursday. They were among 42 people killed in Iraq over a 24-hour period.

Gunmen abducted the 11 workers in groups during the morning and evening as they left the company and then shot them.

Gunmen have recently mounted a spate of raids on businesses in Iraq, kidnapping, killing, and stealing money.

In other incidents, four people were killed when two roadside bombs went off near two mosques after Friday prayers in Baquba, 60kms northeast of Baghdad.

Police said three people were killed and two wounded in the first bombing near, while another civilian died and three others were wounded in the second bombing.

In the past few weeks dozens of people have died in a series of bombings and shootings in and around Baquba, the deadliest being a car bomb attack on a mosque that left 26 people dead on Wednesday.

In the latest tit-for-tat attack, mortars fell near a mosque after prayers in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Zafaraniya, but there were no casualties.

Three Iraqis, including a police major from the northern oil centre of Kirkuk and two civilians near Mosul, were killed in drive-by shootings on Friday.

In Basra, two Iraqis were killed and four British soldiers wounded when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle as their convoy passed.

Seven policemen were also killed and more than 20 went missing when a large group of policemen transporting police vehicles was ambushed by gunmen north of Baghdad on Thursday.—AFP