Insurgents kill 17 Iraqis

INSURGENTS killed 17 Iraqi police and National Guards yesterday in a string of bloody ambushes, bombings and suicide attacks aimed at wrecking Iraq’s January 30 national election.

Two explosions rocked Baghdad, one of them detonated by a suicide bomber posing as a taxi driver who killed two policemen and a civilian near interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s party headquarters.

The other deadly attacks were centred in the restive Sunni heartland north of the capital, raising further questions among Iraqis on how the country’s fledgling security forces will be able to protect voters if they can hardly protect themselves.