Car bombs kill 15 in surge of violence in Iraq

BAGHDAD - Twin suicide car bombs killed at least 15 people during the morning rush hour in central Baghdad today, cutting short what had appeared to be a lull in violence since landmark elections in January.


The bombs detonated in quick succession near an Interior Ministry building on a crowded street, destroying at least 15 cars and scattering debris over a wide area, witnesses said.


An Interior Ministry official said at least 15 people were killed and the death toll could rise. Officials at nearby hospitals reported around 20 wounded. A Reuters cameraman said children were among those killed.


Police officer Abbas Khudier was riding in a nine-car police convoy making its way through a traffic jam when the blasts went off. He said he thought the bombers were targeting his convoy.


"We were cutting through the traffic when a car in the middle of the street blew up," he told Reuters. "We crossed over to the other side and another car followed. It tried to cross the middle isle but flipped over and then blew up. "


Casualties from the first blast were much worse because the bomb went off in the middle of stuck traffic, he said.


The blasts came a day after a series of explosions around the country that killed at least 15 people.


The attacks would appear to mark a return to the daily violence that has been so common over the past two years but which seemed to have subsided since the January elections.


There was more violence outside Baghdad on Thursday. A car bomb blew up near a US military base in Tikrit, killing four Iraqis and wounding nine, police said.


The US military said an American soldier and two Iraqi forces were wounded in the blast. In Latifiya, south of the capital, gunmen shot dead the mayor.


The surge in violence comes after two visits by senior US officials in the past few days, with both lauding Iraq's transition to democracy while warning more work must be done.


The US military has said that while the number of insurgent attacks has dropped by around a fifth since the election, the scale and sophistication of attacks has risen.


Earlier this month, a group of 60 insurgents launched an assault on the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, detonating two car bombs and firing mortars and rockets, before US forces repelled the attack after hours of fighting.


The violence is a worrying backdrop for Iraq's newly elected leaders as they struggle to form a government more than two months since the election.


Iraqi officials have warned that the longer it takes to form a government, the more likely it is to boost the morale of the insurgents, who will view the government as weak and indecisive.


One of the biggest problems facing a new government will be organised crime, with well-organised gangs believed to be behind many of the kidnappings of Iraqis and foreigners in the country.


An American seized earlier this week from the site of a reconstruction project near the capital was shown in a video broadcast by Al Jazeera television on Wednesday.


The man, named by the US embassy in Baghdad as Jeffrey Ake, a water company executive from Indiana, pleaded with US authorities to negotiate with insurgents for his release and urged US forces to be withdrawn from Iraq, Jazeera said.


- REUTERS