Iraq suicide bombers wreak havoc in linked attacks

Three Iraqi suicide bombers killed at least 30 people in a series of co-ordinated attacks in the city of Baqouba today.

One rode in an ambulance with the wounded from an earlier explosion before blowing himself up at a hospital.

The bombings, the deadliest in weeks, came as Iraq prepares for March 7 parliamentary elections.

The crucial vote will decide who will oversee the country as US forces leave and help determine whether Iraq can overcome the deep sectarian tensions that have divided the nation since the 2003 US-led invasion.

US and Iraqi officials have warned repeatedly that insurgents were expected to launch such attacks in an attempt to disrupt the vote.

The bombings could also affect the candidacy of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who came to power in 2006 and oversaw a return to relative stability in 2008 and 2009.

Mr Al-Maliki has continued to present himself as the best candidate to assure security in Iraq.

Police said the blasts struck in quick succession in Baqouba, 35 miles from Baghdad.

First, a suicide car bomb targeted a local government housing office next to an Iraqi Army base.

Within minutes, another suicide bomber blew up a vehicle about 200 yards down the street from the first at an junction near the provincial government headquarters where many police and army personnel were located.

A third suicide bomber, wearing an explosives vest, went in an ambulance with the wounded to the city’s emergency hospital and blew himself up as rescuers and victims from the first two blasts were being taken in for treatment.

Most of the victims came from the blast at the hospital.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but such attacks have been the hallmark of al Qaida.

One witness in Baqouba described being thrown against a wall by the first blast and said that immediately after the explosion, Iraqi security forces opened fire. The witness said she hid in a nearby building, then when the situation appeared to have calmed down, went outside only to hear another blast go off seconds later.

“The place was covered with dust and the smell of TNT powder was all over the area, where panicked people were running and cars were colliding with one another,” she said.

The bombings were the deadliest since the start of February, when a woman blew herself up inside a stop for Shiite pilgrims marking an important religious occasion, killing 54 people.

At the time Baghdad’s top security official said extremists were adopting new methods to outwit bomb-detection squads such as stashing explosives deep inside the engines and bodies of vehicles.

In January a two-day wave of suicide car bombers struck three hotels in Baghdad and the city’s main crime lab, killing at least 63 people.

Iraqi authorities have vowed tight security in the capital and the rest of the country in the run-up to the election and on voting day.

Generally a vehicle ban is imposed across Iraq, the airport will be shut on Sunday and hundreds of thousands of police and army troops dispersed across the country.