By Xinhua
Baghdad : Unidentified gunmen Saturday kidnapped 11 people who were travelling near a town in the volatile Diyala province, northeast of capital Baghdad, a provincial police source said.
Some heavily armed people intercepted a mini-van carrying passengers near the town of al-Edheim, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, and took away the bus with all 11 passengers on board, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The mini-van was heading to the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, when the gunmen took the vehicle to an unknown location in the Himrin mountain area, he said.
Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border in the east, is a hotbed for sectarian violence and a major stronghold of the Al Qaeda network.