By The Associated Press

Developments in Iraq on Monday:

• Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying British Muslims to Shiite shrines, killing two Britons and wounding three. The attack took place in the southwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, one of the most dangerous parts of the capital.

• The U.S. Embassy confirmed an American is missing in Iraq – presumably one of four aid workers who disappeared over the weekend. Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal said authorities had no leads.

• Two Sunni Arab politicians were slain in separate attacks – part of an escalation of violence that U.S. and Iraqi officials predicted in advance of the Dec. 15 elections. Ayad al-Izzi, a member of the party’s political bureau, was a candidate in the parliamentary election. Ghalib al-Sideri was a public relations director for the Sunni-led Council for National Dialogue. No group claimed responsibility for either attack.

• A growing number of Iraqi troop battalions – nearly four dozen as of this week – are playing lead roles in the fight against the insurgency, and American commanders have turned over more than two dozen U.S.-established bases to government control, U.S. officials said.

Those are among signs of progress that the Bush administration is citing as evidence that the Iraqis not only want more responsibility on the security front but are capable of handling it with less assistance from U.S. troops.