BAGHDAD — Capping a week of resurging violence, Sunni Muslim fighters kidnapped Shiite Muslim civilians in a tense town south of Baghdad, and a suicide bomber demolished a restaurant frequented by Iraqi police north of the capital Saturday, killing at least seven people.
The bombing in the city of Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, came during lunchtime. Officials at Baqubah General Hospital said five of the dead were Iraqi police officers.
"A suicide attacker wearing an explosive belt blew himself up after he entered the restaurant as a police patrol was having lunch," said Ismael Ibrahim, an Iraqi military commander. "There are many casualties among the police and civilians. The restaurant was completely destroyed, as were a number of neighboring shops."
In recent months, Iraqi security forces have taken the brunt of the insurgents' wrath, even as the rate of U.S. casualties has fallen dramatically.
The violence deepens a sense of unease that has built over a week of deadly bombings, clashes between insurgents and military forces and the kidnapping of an American contractor.
In Madaen, 15 miles south of Baghdad, there were unconfirmed reports Saturday that Iraqi soldiers had surrounded the town after Sunni insurgents kidnapped a number of Shiites and drove through the streets shouting death threats over truck-mounted loudspeakers.
"They were saying that unless the Shiites moved out of the area, they would be killed," said Sabah Kadhim, an Interior Ministry spokesman.
Other sources at the ministry said that the unrest in Madaen began after a mortar attack Thursday on the Rasul al Adham Mosque and that the number of hostages taken was no more than a dozen. Some news agencies put the number at 60 or even 100.
Madaen and neighboring Salman Pak lie in the Tigris River Valley, which divides the Sunni-dominated center of Iraq and the predominantly Shiite south. The area has been a hotbed of sectarian tensions. Since the U.S.-led invasion, Iraqi and American troops have entered Madaen several times to quell tensions there, but to little avail.
"This is a mixed community, and unfortunately the sects haven't got on very well there," Kadhim said. "Terrorists came in from the outside and have tried to exploit that. They are trying to incite religious hatred and are threatening some people. We sent some of our special forces to check out and restore the area and chase the terrorists away."
