Suicide blasts kill 33 in Iraq

BAQUBA, Iraq, (AFP) Three powerful co-ordinated suicide attacks in the central Iraq city of Baquba killed at least 33 people and wounded 55 on Wednesday, just days before nationwide parliamentary elections.
The blasts, the deadliest to hit the country in nearly a month, spurred police to clamp an immediate curfew on the city, 60 km north of Baghdad and one of Iraqs biggest.
The attacks came despite heightened security across the country ahead of Sundays vote and after the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened to disrupt the election by military means.
Two near-simultaneous suicide vehicle bombs ripped through the provincial housing departments offices and a nearby traffic intersection at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT), while a man later blew himself up at Baqubas main hospital where victims were being treated.
The three bombings killed 33 people, a security official from Baquba operations command said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The (third) suicide bomber tried to blow himself up against the police chief when he came to see the wounded in the hospital.
Police chief Major General Abdul Hussein al-Shimmari escaped unharmed but members of his personal security team, including police Colonel Nabil Ibrahim, were wounded. Diyala provincial health chief Dr. Ali al-Timimi was also injured.
An advisor to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Ali al-Mussawi, said terrorists were bent on disrupting Sundays vote.
They want to cause confusion and stop the people from voting because the elections are a big threat to terrorists, he told AFP.
They have put all their efforts into jeopardising the elections.
The first vehicle in Wednesdays attacks crashed through the entrance to the provincial housing departments compound, which sits next to a police station, before exploding.
Moments later at a nearby traffic intersection, a suicide bomber triggered the explosives packed into his vehicle, creating a powerful blast. The hospital bombing occurred a short time later.
US and Iraqi security forces have cordoned off the hospital, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
Wednesdays attack was the deadliest to hit the country since February 5, when 41 Shia pilgrims were killed on the last day of a religious mourning ceremony on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala.
Baquba, capital of Diyala province, was a hotbed of Sunni insurgents in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion.
Iraqis go to the polls on Sunday 7 in legislative elections, the second such vote since Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.
The countrys national security advisor told AFP on Sunday that of the groups seeking to strike in the election period, AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) attacks are the most direct and serious security threat.
Al-Qaeda will try to target the whole process, but we do think that it doesnt have the capacity to reach its goals, Safa Hussein said.
Hussein added that security forces had found and prevented at least 10 vehicle bombs in the past month.