Baghdad, Iraq ? After a one-day boycott by Shiite leaders, Iraqi politicians returned to talks on forming a government – but that may have been all they could agree on.

They debated what the security powers of the new government’s prime minister should be, but reached no conclusions Tuesday, Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman said.

The United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament, had shunned talks Monday to protest a U.S.-backed raid on what Iraqis say was a mosque. At least 16 people were killed in the assault, which freed an Iraqi hostage.

In Washington, President Bush said he was “pleased to hear … that the Iraqis are now back at the table.”

The violence, however, was unabated.

Masked gunmen, many in military uniform, stormed into a currency exchange and two electronic stores in broad daylight Tuesday, kidnapping 24 Iraqis and making off with tens of thousands of dollars.

Police also discovered 17 more corpses, all men from Baghdad who were handcuffed and shot in the head. A majority had been dumped under a bridge. Hundreds of bodies have been found since the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shiite shrine, most believed the work of sectarian killers or death squads operating inside the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry.

Dozens of other Iraqis were wounded and at least seven killed in drive-by shootings and car and roadside bombings Tuesday.

The mass kidnappings came a day after gunmen abducted 16 employees of an Iraqi trading company in Baghdad’s upscale Mansour neighborhood. Thousands of people have been kidnapped in the chaos of post-invasion Iraq, fueling the fear and uncertainty felt by most Iraqis who are looking to their leaders for resolution.