Suicide bomber triggers Basra blast

A suicide driver killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded 20 people when he detonated his car at the entrance of police headquarters in Basra today.

The blast raised more fears over the southern city's deteriorating security situation.

Two parked car bombs also went off nearly simultaneously in a shopping street in eastern Baghdad, killing six civilians and wounding 20 people, just yards away from a line of pensioners outside a local bank, the police said.

The blasts followed a deadly night in Baqouba, where a suicide bomber struck a US-promoted reconciliation meeting of Shiite and Sunni tribal sheikhs after sunset killing at least 15 people, including the city's police chief, and wounding about 30 others.

The violence comes amid continued friction between Iraqi and US officials over the September 16 killing of 11 Iraqi civilians allegedly by Blackwater USA security guards in Baghdad, and the US troops' arrest last week of an Iranian officer who the Iraqis claim was here by official invitation.

The US military said the man is suspected of being a member of Iran's paramilitary Quds Force, accused by the US of arming Shiite militias in Iraq.

The arrest has drawn condemnation from Iraqi leaders. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has been one of America's staunchest allies in Iraq, called it "illegal" and said he met with American leaders to demand the Iranian's release.

He said the Americans did not have the right to arrest somebody inside the autonomous Kurdish area in northern Iraq because the US had handed over security responsibilities to the Kurds.