IRAQ: Two bombs exploded near a Shia Muslim mosque in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 15 people and wounding nearly 60 others, as Iraq's feuding leaders try to ease sectarian tensions.
As scores of people inspected the damage caused by the first blast, a roadside bomb, a suicide bomber in a car drove into the crowd and blew himself up.
In a similar co-ordinated attack earlier in the day, suicide car bombers launched twin attacks inside a police academy compound in the town of Tikrit, 150km north of Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens.
A police official said 57 people were wounded in the attack near the mosque in the mostly Shia Shu'la district of Baghdad.
The bombings come at a volatile time when Iraqi politicians are trying to calm tensions as they argue over the make-up of a government.
Iraq's newly empowered Shias and Kurds are trying to form an alliance for a cabinet while the once-privileged Sunnis, whose members are leading an insurgency, have been sidelined.
Politicians have promised to include Sunnis in the new political landscape but they have seen no tangible signs those promises will be delivered.
Al-Qaeda's Iraqi wing threatened yesterday to kill fellow Sunni Muslims who join the country's new government.
Like the Baghdad attack, bombers in Tikrit attacked a crowd of people at the scene of a blast which had occurred minutes earlier. A bomber drove into the compound and blew up his vehicle among a crowd of policemen, killing several, according to witnesses. As police and passers-by rushed to help those hit in the blast, a second car bomber entered the compound and detonated his vehicle, the witnesses said.
A doctor at Tikrit's hospital, Mohammed Ayash, said seven bodies had been brought in and as many as 26 people were wounded. All those killed were police, while civilians and police were among the wounded.
Al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq said that a pair from its "martyrs' brigade" carried out the attack, according to an internet posting. It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement.
"We warn all those who want to join the politics of infidels and apostates that the steel sword will be their only fate," the group, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in a statement posted on a website used by Islamic militants.
Tikrit is the home town of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. It has seen frequent outbreaks of violence, including a car bomb blast outside the US military's headquarters in the town last week.
Prime minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari will present a list of ministers to parliament today, taking Iraq a step closer to a government, lawmakers said.
Under Iraq's interim constitution, the 275-seat assembly must approve the prime minister and his cabinet by a simple majority. Judging by the recent performance of the parliament, that could take some time, further frustrating Iraqis.