Developments in Iraq on April 30

April 30 (Reuters) - Following are security and political developments in Iraq on Sunday as of 0930 GMT.

Iraq is forming a new government of national unity to combat a mostly Sunni Arab insurgency. Sectarian tensions are running high after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February, which unleashed a wave of reprisal attacks.

Asterisk denotes new or amended entry.

*BAGHDAD - The wife and daughter of a former construction and housing minister Omar al-Damluji were kidnapped in Baghdad, the latest in a series of abductions and killings of the family of politicians and former politicians.

BAGHDAD - Three foreign security contractors were killed on Sunday when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb just outside Baghdad, witnesses said.

Two more foreigners were wounded in the blast, on the main highway southeast of the capital, near the town of Suwaiyra.

The British Foreign Office and its embassy spokesman in Baghdad confirmed three people died and two, including a Briton, were wounded in an attack on private contractors in the area.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said those killed were not British but declined to give their nationality.

BASRA - Two British contractors were injured in an incident in the southern oil city of Basra on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said on Sunday.

The spokeswoman said a British military spokesman had been wrong to say that two British contractors had been killed when a roadside bomb hit their convoy on Saturday.

KIRKUK - An Iraqi civilian was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in the town of Dibis 45 km (28 miles) north of the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said.

KIRKUK - A civilian was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in Kirkuk, police said.

NEAR MUSAYIB - One police officer was killed and three policemen wounded when their patrol was targeted by a car bomb near the town of Musayib 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

YUSIFIYA - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed more than 20 foreign insurgents, several of them wearing suicide vests, during raids in a rural area south of Baghdad in the past few weeks, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

The raids took place in and around Yusifiya, a village 15 km (9 miles) south of Baghdad, which insurgents have used as a staging area for suicide attacks in Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

U.S. and Iraqi forces captured seven wanted insurgents and detained more than 50 other suspects on Saturday during raids on locations believed to be safe houses for foreign fighters and al Qaeda-linked leaders, the military said.

NEAR BAGHDAD - Two suspected al Qaeda members were killed on Saturday by U.S. forces in Taji, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Sunday. It said one of the two men, which the U.S. military identified as Abu Usamah, was suspected of involvement in planning suicide car bombs.

BAGHDAD - A bomb planted inside a minibus exploded in Baghdad's Shi'ite Sadr City neighbourhood on Sunday, killing at least two people and wounding six, police sources said.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

*BAGHDAD - Iraq's president said on Sunday he and U.S. officials had met with insurgents and that a deal with some groups to end violence could be reached.

Jalal Talabani said the discussions took place in the president's Kurdish home region in northern Iraq.