Baghdad blasts kill 18 and hurts 36

A PAIR of car bombs exploded near the Iraqi interior minister’s offices in Baghdad yesterday, killing 18 people and wounding three dozen others.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blasts, the latest in several weeks of stepped up attacks that followed a relative lull in violence in mid-March.

In a statement posted on the Internet, al-Qaida in Iraq, headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said the bombings were targeting police who were guarding the offices of Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib, who is in charge of the nation’s police. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.