The group of Al Qaeda frontman in Iraq Abu Musab Al Zarqawi yesterday posted a video on a website showing the two Algerian diplomats it has kidnapped in Iraq and decided to execute. The short video by the Organisation of Al Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers showed separate clips of the blindfolded diplomats, stating their names and other personal details.

"Ali Belaroussi, interim charge d'affaires at the Algerian embassy, aged 62," said Algeria's top diplomat in Iraq, wearing a white shirt, before specifying his home address in Algiers.

"Ben Kadi Ezzeddin, 47 years ... deputy charge d'affaires," said his colleague, who was wearing a white shirt with brown stripes.

Meanwhile, about 10 gunmen emptied their automatic rifles into a bus carrying Iraqi workers from a factory west of Baghdad, killing up to 17 people.

"We were on the bus going home. Two cars with about 10 insurgents opened fire on us. We don't know why: we are just workers," said Adil Zamal, being treated for multiple gunshot wounds to the back at the An Noor hospital, which received about 20 wounded patients from the attack.

In other violence, two police were killed by a mortar on Baghdad's southern outskirts, and three more were killed by a rocket attack in Hilla, a town further south.

An aide of the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr was shot dead while stepping out of his car in Baquba north of Baghdad. A paramedic and an Iraqi woman were killed during clashes between the Iraqi army and insurgents in Mosul.

Three Ministry of Health workers were shot dead in their car in the capital's eastern New Baghdad district. Gunmen killed a Pakistani truck-driver in Tikrit, and a police officer and a child were killed by gunmen in central Basra

PHOTO CAPTION