Gunmen stopped three minibuses carrying Shias south of Baghdad, killed nine passengers and kidnapped 13 others yesterday, local police said.
The attack took place in Latifiya, a violent town in the "Triangle of Death", so called because of the large number of attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents against US troops and Iraqi government forces.
Latifiya police said the bus was on its way from Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, to the capital when the attack occurred at nightfall.
Since the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra in February, Iraq has been gripped by sectarian violence between Muslim Shias and Sunnis. Mass kidnappings on dangerous roads have become a feature of a campaign of violence many fear is pushing Iraq to civil war.