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50 workers snatched in Iraq bus hijacking
 An Iraqi police car sits outside the Russian Embassy in Baghdad on June 3, after 4 diplomats were kidnapped. CorrectionDue to an error in translation, CNN mistakenly reported that a group linked to al Qaeda had killed four Russian diplomats that it had taken hostage. The accurate translation was that the group had posted a statement on a Web site saying that they had decided to kill the diplomats. CNN regrets the error and has corrected the story.
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen hijacked five buses carrying at least 50 workers at a factory north of Baghdad on Wednesday, an Iraqi police official said. The workers had just loaded onto the buses at the end of their shift when the gunmen commandeered them near the Nasr al-Adhim general complex about 12 miles north of Baghdad at 3 p.m. local time, the official said. The factory makes school benches and blackboards. During the regime of Saddam Hussein, it produced plastic containers, the official said. Also Wednesday, a group linked to al Qaeda said in a statement posted on a Web site that it had decided to kill four Russian diplomats after Moscow did not meet its demands within 48 hours. It was unclear from the statement whether the Shura Council had carried out the threat. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged the insurgents "not to take an irreparable step and preserve the lives of our men." CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a Web site that frequently has carried messages from insurgent groups. The Mujahedeen Shura Council had said in a Monday statement that it was holding four diplomats hostage. But the Wednesday posting said, "this government didn't care about the diplomats and didn't give their lives any value." Instead, it said, the government merely asked for the release of the hostages "while continuing their fight against Islam and its people." The Shura Council decided to kill the hostages, the statement said, adding that blood was on the Russian government's hands "and there will be an example for others after them." A Russian Foreign Ministry statement said the diplomats "are representatives of the Russian people, which has never and nowhere waged a war against Islam. "Russia is a multireligious country, where representatives of its two greatest creeds, the Russian Orthodoxy and Islam, have been living in peace and harmony for centuries," the statement said. One of the abducted diplomats is also a Muslim, the ministry said. "Those who have undertaken this action must also listen to numerous calls of the world's leading Islamic figures demanding the speedy release of the Russian citizens." The hostages were taken June 3, when a car belonging to the Russian Embassy in Iraq came under fire. Embassy official Vitaly Titov was killed in the attack, and diplomats Fyodor Zaitsev, Rinat Agliugin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseyev were kidnapped. The Mujahedeen Shura Council is the same group that claimed Monday it was holding two U.S. soldiers hostage. U.S. military officials said on Tuesday that bodies believed to be those of the soldiers were found Monday night. (Full story) Baghdad violence continuesA car bomb exploded outside a Baghdad restaurant Wednesday, killing two people and wounding four, police said. The bombing occurred about 12:45 p.m. local time in the Shia neighborhood of Sadr City. Also near Sadr City, police found the body of Khamees al-Ubaidi, a lead defense attorney for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He had been shot to death. (Watch how attorney was abducted-- 1:55) Another member of the defense team said about an hour before al-Ubaidi's body was found, a group of insurgents dressed as Iraqi police stormed his home in a Sunni neighborhood in southern Baghdad. (Full story) Elsewhere, police said 16 bullet-riddled bodies had been found in various Mosul neighborhoods over the past 24 hours. Ten of them were identified as soldiers, police, traders and a former Iraqi army officer under Saddam Hussein. Other developmentsCNN's Arwa Damon, Cal Perry, Barbara Starr, Nic Robertson and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report. 
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