IRAQ: Suicide bombers struck at Iraqi policemen twice yesterday, killing at least 27 people in the worst bloodshed since the country's historic election.
The blasts, along with a wave of kidnappings and murders, mark the end of a brief lull in violence surrounding the January 30th poll, when millions of Iraqis turned out to vote in defiance of terrorist threats.
Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi yesterday claimed responsibility for both blasts and vowed to carry out further attacks on "apostates and their masters", a reference to US-led forces and the Iraqis who work with them.
In the deadliest attack, at least 15 civilians were killed and 17 wounded when a car bomb exploded outside the main police headquarters in the town of Baquba, north-east of Baghdad.
Police said the driver of the car tried to ram the police station, but was blocked by a concrete barrier and detonated his explosives near civilians instead.
In the northern city of Mosul, 12 people were killed and four wounded when a suicide bomber targeted a crowd of police officers waiting to collect their salaries in a hospital compound.
The bombings come as fresh figures released by Iraq's electoral commission appeared to confirm fears of a very low turnout in Sunni areas of the country where the insurgency is strongest.
With 80 per cent of polling stations accounted for in the Sunni-majority province of Salaheddin, Iraq's main Shia coalition leads with a scant 27,000 votes, over a group of Kurdish parties.
The total number of registered voters in Salaheddin - which includes major Sunni cities of Samara and Tikrit - is not known, but the region has a population of over two million.
Iraqi officials had hoped that a sizeable Sunni turnout would undermine the insurgency and give legitimacy to the new 275-member national assembly.
Officials are now struggling to convince Sunni leaders to take part in the new administration, which looks set to be dominated by the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shi'ite list backed by religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The Sunni Muslim Clerics' Association has said it will only work with the new government if a timetable for the withdrawal of American and British troops is set.
In other partial results released yesterday by the electoral commission, a coalition of Iraq's main two Kurdish parties has moved into overall second place behind the United Iraqi Alliance.
The partial results from some polling centres in 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces, gave the Alliance a commanding 2.3 million votes, with the Kurds winning 1.1 million and a bloc led by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on 620,000.
The election commission says the partial results do not necessarily give a clear picture of the final distribution of votes.
No official results are expected until the end of the week.