Bus bomb kills 20 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Iraq)—A bomb tore through in a minibus in a largely Shiite Baghdad neighborhood Monday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 18. Gunmen killed at least 10 people, including a television cameraman, a city councilman and a Sunni sheik, in executions and assassinations around Iraq.
Gen. John Abizaid, commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East, met with the country’s Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to “reaffirm President Bush’s commitment” to success in Iraq, the government said. The two discussed the effects Iran and Syria were having on Iraq’s security, according to the Iraqi government statement.
Abizaid was the third top U.S. official to visit Iraq since Oct. 30, and the meeting comes a day after al-Maliki promised to shake up his government in a bid to end the sectarian slaughter. Amid the violence, two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in a roadside bombing in Salahuddin Province north of Baghdad, the military reported Monday.—Agencies