String of car bombs kill 43

AT least 43 people were killed and another 89 injured yesterday in three car bomb attacks near a bus station and hospital in Baghdad.

They were the deadliest attacks in Iraq's capital in weeks. Survivors searched through charred buses and cars for signs of friends and relatives.

A suicide car bomber targeting policemen detonated his vehicle outside the Nahda bus station in central Baghdad, one of the city's major transit points, the US military said.

A second car exploded inside the station car park near buses that carry passengers to Amarah and Basra, Shi'ite-dominated cities.

It was deadliest series of single-day suicide bombings in Baghdad in weeks, although suicide attacks with far lower death tolls occur here regularly.

One US soldier was killed yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol in south-west Baghdad and another was killed on Monday in an insurgent attack in northern Iraq.

The latest attacks in the capital occurred shortly before Iraqi leaders started a meeting to try to finish the new constitution. A Shi'ite negotiator, Khalid al-Attiyah, said talks were going so well that the document might be ready for parliament any day now.

The blasts left several mutilated bodies strewn across the station car park and a large plume of black smoke visible throughout the capital as many travelled to work. Over a dozen cars and at least two buses were destroyed, leaving only rows of seat frames inside a bare metal hull.

A second suicide bomber exploded his vehicle near the Kindi Hospital about a half-hour later as many of the wounded were arriving for treatment, police said.

"This particular incident, where terrorists deliberately target civilians, emergency responders and hospitals, defines crimes against

humanity period. The Iraqi people have seen once again that the terrorists have no regard for human life," said Colonel Joseph DiSalvo, commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

Shortly after the explosion, four suspects were detained at the bus station on suspicion of being involved in the attacks, the Transportation Ministry said.

Elsewhere, six new Iraqi soldier recruits were killed execution-style after gunmen stopped their minibus near Hawija, 48 kilometres south-west of Kirkuk.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb was defused close to the Imam Hussein shrine in the holy Shi'ite city of Karbala.

The shrine is one of the holiest sites in the country for Shi'ite Muslims.

Iraqi's leaders resumed negotiations on the draft constitution yesterday.

Late on Monday, Iraq's parliament was forced to grant itself a week-long extension when leaders could not agree on the document.

One of the stumbling blocks was Kurdish demands for self-determination, which would give them the right to secede.

Yesterday, Kurdish leaders said they had no plans to break away from Iraq even through they wanted the right enshrined in the constitution.