Gunmen kidnapped and killed 21 Shia workers on their way home from Baghdad to the restive province of Diyala to its north while 20 other Iraqis were killed in bombing and attacks , officials and a medic said Monday.

The workers, employed in Baghdad's popular Shorja market, were abducted on Sunday as they headed home after work by gunmen who ambushed their minibus and took them away to an unknown destination.

Two coordinated roadside bomb attacks in the capital killed six American soldiers overnight Saturday to Sunday, four of them in the second blast targeting a response team scrambled to the site of the first deadly explosion.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, a bomber blew up his truck full of flour and explosives near a primary school and police station in Kirkuk, killing a total 12 people, including the nine children, police and medics said.