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BAGHDAD, April 20 (Reuters) - Nine university students and their driver were kidnapped on Sunday near Baquba, north of Baghdad, when gunmen stopped their vehicle at a fake checkpoint, police said.

The gunmen also grabbed another man in a truck at the same checkpoint and took all of the hostages to an unknown location, police said. The students were returning to Diyala university after a weekend break.

The kidnapping occurred two weeks after 40 students were seized by gunmen at a fake checkpoint near the northern city of Mosul. They were held for several hours before security forces freed them.

Although the identity of Sunday's kidnappers was not known, the incident comes amid an upturn in violence in northern Iraq, where Sunni Islamist al Qaeda has regrouped after being pushed out of Baghdad and western areas last year.

Kidnappings, for both political and financial reasons, began increasing in Iraq in 2004, a year after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. (Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Charles Dick)

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