05/05/2005

Dozens killed in Baghdad attacks

Another series of attacks on security forces in Baghdad has left as many as 24 people dead.

At least 13 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a device at a recruitment centre for the Iraq National Guard.

Ten Iraqi police were reported to have been killed during two separate gun attacks, in the west of the Iraqi capital.

The Iraqi deputy interior minister was also the subject of a bomb attack, which left one person, reportedly one of the minister’s bodyguards, dead.

The violence in Iraq is continuing, as the attempts to form a new government continue. It had been hoped that the violence would ease following the election on January 30 – the first in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. However, the coalition parties involved in the formation of the new government have only recently begun to decide on a new Cabinet. The Iraqi Cabinet was sworn in on Tuesday, but some posts remain unfilled.

Meanwhile, violence by insurgents has increased dramatically.

Today’s attacks follow a massive suicide bomb, which killed dozens of police recruits in the Kurdish city of Irbil.

Reports vary, but the death toll has been estimated at between 46 – 70 people. The attack was reportedly one of the bloodiest to occur in Iraq this year.

(KMcA/SP)

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