Insurgents Kill 5 Iraqi Teachers

Insurgents dragged five Shiite Muslim schoolteachers and their driver into a classroom Monday, lined them against a wall and gunned them down in the Sunni-majority village of Muelha, 30 miles south of Baghdad.

The school shooting was among a number of violent incidents Monday in Iraq, including a suicide attack and roadside bombings that killed 10 Iraqis and three U.S. soldiers, bringing to more than 50 the number of people killed in the last two days.

In other developments, American and Iraqi officials released 500 detainees from the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad to mark the coming Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

And in Washington, U.S. defense officials said that a leading deputy to insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, identified as Abu Azzam, was killed Sunday.

Azzam “was a significant Al Qaeda leader,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.