Iraq violence rages on

A man wounded in a car bomb explosion is treated at Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital yesterday. Two Iraqi civilians were killed, including a child, and five injured when a car bomb blew up near a US military convoy in the western district of Amiriyah this morning, an interior ministry source said. PHOTO: AFP

The car bomb attacks, which wounded 16 people, followed two similar deadly strikes the day earlier, indicating that insurgents appear to be stepping up attacks in Baghdad after a relative lull following the January 30 election.

Officials from the election-winning Shiite alliance expressed hope that incoming prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari would finally announce a government by the end of the week, after negotiations that tested the patience of Iraqis.

Hospital sources said two were killed and at least five wounded in the first attack on Wednesday, which occurred in the western district of Amiriyah and appeared to target a US patrol.

"One of the two dead was a child," said the interior ministry source, without saying if US troops were among the casualties. There was no immediate word from the US military.

A second car bomb wounded eight more people near the Bilat police station in the southern district of Dora. The third car bomb attack wounded three civilians. The attacks all occurred within the space of three hours.

Wednesday's bombs followed two similar attacks a day earlier that killed at least eight and wounded at least 51, many of them would-be Iraqi army recruits.

Six died and 44 were wounded outside an Iraqi army recruitment center in Baghdad, a defense ministry spokesman said. The suicide bomber detonated the car outside a palace of ousted president Saddam Hussein, now used by the army.

And at least seven civilians were wounded when a second car bomber later Tuesday targetted a US patrol in west Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

Two US soldiers were killed Tuesday evening in a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad, the military said.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda-linked group took responsibility for Tuesday's attacks in a statement posted on a website that it habitually uses to claim operations in Iraq.

Four Iraqi soldiers were also killed in an attack Tuesday against an army patrol in Khalidiyah, west of the capital.

Insurgents also appear to be diversifying their strategy, mounting large scale raids against police stations, such as one in the northern city of Mosul on Monday when a 50-strong group unsuccessfully tried to overrun local police.

They have also been hunting down top officials in their homes. Late Monday, gunmen in army uniforms forced their way into the southern Baghdad home of Major General Adnan Faush Farawni, a senior advisor to the defense ministry, shooting him and his son dead.