Four killed in Iraq violence

Rebels fired several mortar rounds in Iraq's northern city of Mosul on Thursday in an attack possibly aimed at visiting interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Journalists accompanying Allawi heard about five blasts as the prime minister's party was about to leave the city. Moments later a small blaze and plume of black smoke could be seen by those aboard the helicopters taking his entourage away.
Asked if he thought the mortar barrage was meant for him, Allawi told reporters: "It was known that I was coming to Mosul, so I was certainly surprised that this did not happen at the beginning (of my trip), but at the end."
There were no reports of casualties from the mortar rounds, which landed a few streets away from the prime minister's party.
"Maybe this one wasn't by mistake but this is not a deterrent really," he said. "This is yet another sign that there are people who came and are coming from outside Iraq who are determined to put a stop to our progression forward and we are not going to allow this and nor will the Iraqi people."
Allawi, accompanied by Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib and national security adviser Kassim Daoud, discussed how to improve security in the city with Mosul's tribal leaders.
He said a 10-day arms buy-back scheme which ended in Sadr City on Thursday had netted some $4.5 million worth of weapons. The scheme will not be extended in that area, where security forces will begin weapons searches soon, he said.
But an arms amnesty would be extended to the rest of the country in an effort reduce the presence of armed groups ahead of Iraq's first free elections for decades due in January.
Gunmen attacked a bus carrying Baghdad airport employees to work killing at least four people and wounding several others, including the driver, an airport employee said.
"The bus was riddled with bullet holes. There was broken glass everywhere," said the employee, who asked not to be named. She said there were at least 25 people in the bus when it was fired on as it passed through a Baghdad suburb.
The bus was carrying administrative employees, she said.
Yarmook hospital in central Baghdad said it had received several wounded, some of them in critical condition.
Insurgents frequently attack buses transporting people to work at US-run bases or other installations seen to be under the control of American forces.