Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com). Voice of America is funded by the US Federal Government and content it exclusively produces is in the public domain. Gunmen Seize Security Company Employees, Roadside Bombs Kill at Least --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 in Iraq --------- http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1145A8D:3919ACA US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad says sectarian attacks could develop into civil war Gunmen in camouflage uniforms have stormed a private security company in Baghdad, taking dozens of employees hostage. Iraqi police say the gunmen seized as many as 50 employees of the company from its offices in an eastern Baghdad neighborhood. Iraqi man injured in an explosion, recovers in Baghdad hospital In other violence Wednesday, Iraqi police said roadside bombs, including one that hit an Interior Ministry security convoy, killed at least four people in Baghdad. Security patrols found the bodies of at least 20 men, most of them in an abandoned vehicle in Amiriyah, a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of the capital. Iraqi officials say two of the men appear to have been shot, and most had been bound and strangled. There is no word on who the victims were, but the grisly discoveries come during a surge in sectarian violence since last month's bombing of a golden-domed Shi'ite shrine in Samarra. Elsewhere, the U.S. army announced that an American soldier died after a roadside bomb hit a U.S. patrol near the northern town of Tel Afar. The American military also announced the release of more than 120 male detainees. It did not give the nationalities of the released detainees. The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, says the sectarian attacks could develop into a civil war. He told The Los Angeles Times that the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 opened a "Pandora's box" of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday he does not believe Iraq is in a state of civil war now, but he acknowledged that the potential for such a conflict has always been present. Meanwhile, Iraqi political parties are continuing work at forming a new government. President Jalal Talabani has ordered parliament to convene on Sunday, in order to meet a deadline mandated by the nation's post-Saddam constitution. However, the Shi'ite alliance, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, of Prime Minister Ibraham al-Jaafari has asked Mr. Talabani to delay the opening. Kurdish and Sunni politicians oppose Mr. al-Jaafari continuing as prime minister. Mr. Jaafari has said he will not be pressured into abandoning his campaign for a second term. Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters. .