Suicide bombers kill 26 Iraqis in two attacks

BAGHDAD - Suicide bombers have killed at least 26 people in attacks in two Iraqi cities police said, in the worst bloodshed since Iraq's election.

At least 14 people were killed and 13 were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded outside a police station in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

Another 12 died and four were wounded in a blast at a hospital in the northern city of Mosul. Police said it was caused by a suicide bomber although hospital officials initially said it was the result of a mortar attack.

Rabia Yaseen, director-general for health in Mosul, said police had been gathering at the rear of the hospital to receive their salaries when the blast tore through the crowd.

A large crater was blown in the road and at least five cars were destroyed. Most, if not all, of the victims were thought to be police officers.

Guerrillas trying to overthrow Iraq's US-backed government have mounted frequent attacks on Iraqi security forces, but failed in their bid to wreck the January 30 election despite sending several suicide bombers to polling centres.

Since then there have been dozens on attacks, but few as deadly as Monday's.

A separate mortar attack on the city hall building in Mosul killed one person and wounded three.

There was still no word on the fate of four Egyptian engineers who were kidnapped in Baghdad on Sunday.

The men were seized as they left their house in the west of the capital for work. All are employed by a unit of the Egyptian telecoms firm Orascom, which has several contracts in Iraq including one to run Iraqi mobile phone operator Iraqna.

The abduction appeared to be part of an ongoing attempt by militants to disrupt the rebuilding of Iraq and came two days after the brazen kidnapping of an Italian journalist.

Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter with the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, was bundled into a car by gunmen as she conducted interviews on a Baghdad street in broad daylight.

An Islamist militant group that claims to have kidnapped her said in an internet statement it would "soon" decide her fate.

"We in the Jihad Organisation are still interrogating the prisoner and the legislative committee ... will issue a ruling in this regard soon," said the statement, signed by the Jihad Organisation.

The group made no mention of a deadline it had set in an earlier statement which threatened to kill Sgrena by Monday if Italian troops did not leave Iraq.

In a separate internet statement, al Qaeda's group in Iraq denied it was involved in the kidnapping.

"Reports that Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq has claimed the kidnapping of the Italian journalist are false and baseless," the statement said. "But this does not necessarily mean we are rejecting this operation."

Italy has been an important ally of the United States in Iraq and has about 3000 troops in Iraq, based mostly in the southern city of Nassiriya.

Eight days after the historic election, the result remains unknown, although electoral officials were expected to release updated partial results later and hope to complete the process by Thursday.

The count so far puts a religious Shi'ite coalition in the lead by a long way with two-thirds of the vote, based on results from 35 per cent of polling centres.

Buoyed by its strong showing, the coalition is insisting it should get the prime minister's job in the new government. The post is currently held by Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite whose bloc is in second place with only 18 per cent of the vote.

However, since most of the votes counted so far have come from Shi'ite areas, results could change quickly -- particularly when results from the Kurdish-dominated north are tallied.

- REUTERS