Gunmen 'kill 11 Iraqi recruits'

Eleven police recruits have been killed by gunmen in northern Iraq, local officials have said.

The men were leaving the northern town of Baaj, 130km (80 miles) west of the city of Mosul, when the gunmen ambushed their minibus.

They were killed with a bullet to the head, one official said.

Iraqi forces backed by the US have been conducting a crackdown against al-Qaeda militants in Mosul and the surrounding area in recent days.

The men had been returning home from a recruitment camp.

The killings came shortly after officials said they had arrested a man suspected of being al-Qaeda's leader in Mosul.

The suspect, an ex-official in former president Saddam Hussein's army, was detained after fleeing south from Mosul to Tikrit, a defence ministry spokesman said.

The ex-official was named as Abdul Khaliq Sabawi.