Suicide bombers attacked two police stations and caused carnage at a hospital in a turbulent Iraqi city on Wednesday, killing at least 31 people and wounding 48, just days before a parliamentary election.
Iraq’s national poll on Sunday is viewed as pivotal for the war-scarred nation as United States troops prepare to end combat operations in August ahead of a full pull-out by end-2011, and Iraq starts to lure foreign investors in an effort to rebuild.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has partly based his hopes of re-election on improved security throughout Iraq, and US and Iraqi officials say attacks by suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents are aimed at undermining his Shi’ite-led government.
Police said the first two attackers drove explosives-packed cars at police stations in the centre and west of Baquba, 65km north-east of Baghdad.
The third assailant, wearing a police uniform and on foot, blew himself up at the gate of the city’s main hospital as the casualties from the earlier blasts were ferried there.
The bomber had tried to target the provincial police chief, who had been visiting the hospital, but security guards stopped him. Many people were killed or wounded. More chaos erupted as the police chief’s bodyguards shot randomly in the air.
“The suicide attacker was wearing a police uniform, with the rank of lieutenant,” Ali Mohammed, a wounded policeman receiving treatment at the hospital, told Reuters.
At least 12 of the dead were police officers.
Baquba is the capital of Diyala, a troubled province where al-Qaeda and other Sunni militant groups still battle US troops and Iraqi security forces.
A volatile ethno-sectarian mix of minority Kurds, majority Shi’ites and Sunnis who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein have made it difficult to bring peace to Diyala. — Reuters