Deadly suicide bombings strike city of Baquba

AFP -  Three powerful co-ordinated suicide attacks in the central Iraq city of Baquba killed at least 33 people and wounded 55 on Wednesday, just days before nationwide parliamentary elections.
  
The blasts, the deadliest to hit the country in nearly a month, spurred police to clamp an immediate curfew on the city, 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghdad and one of Iraq's biggest.
  
The attacks came despite heightened security across the country ahead of Sunday's vote and after the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened to disrupt the election by "military means."
  

"The most important elections in Iraq's recent history" By Robert PARSONS

Two near-simultaneous suicide vehicle bombs ripped through the provincial housing department's offices and a nearby traffic intersection at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT), while a man later blew himself up at Baquba's main hospital where victims were being treated.
  
"The three bombings killed 33 people," a security official from Baquba operations command said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
  
"The (third) suicide bomber tried to blow himself up against the police chief when he came to see the wounded in the hospital."
  
Police chief Major General Abdul Hussein al-Shimmari escaped unharmed but members of his personal security team, including police Colonel Nabil Ibrahim, were wounded. Diyala provincial health chief Dr. Ali al-Timimi was also injured.
  
The first vehicle crashed through the entrance to the provincial housing department's compound, which sits next to a police station, before exploding.
  
Moments later at a nearby traffic intersection, a suicide bomber triggered the explosives packed into his vehicle, creating a powerful blast. The hospital bombing occurred a short time later.
  
US and Iraqi security forces have cordoned off the hospital, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
  
Wednesday's attack was the deadliest to hit the country since February 5, when 41 Shiite pilgrims were killed on the last day of a religious mourning ceremony on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala.
  
Baquba, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghdad and capital of Diyala province, was a hotbed of Sunni insurgents in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion.
  
Iraqis go to the polls on Sunday 7 in legislative elections, the second such vote since Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.
  
The country's national security advisor told AFP on Sunday that of the groups seeking to strike in the election period, "AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) attacks are the most direct and serious security threat."
  
"Al-Qaeda will try to target the whole process, but we do think that it doesn't have the capacity to reach its goals," Safa Hussein said.
  

FRANCE 24's Robert Parsons reports from Baghdad By Robert PARSONS

Hussein added that security forces had found and prevented at least 10 vehicle bombs in the past month.
  
AQI leader Baghdadi last month condemned the elections as a political crime plotted by Shiites, according to US-based SITE, which monitors Islamist websites.
  
"(We) have decided to prevent the elections by all legitimate means possible, primarily by military means," SITE quoted him as saying in a statement posted on an Islamist website.
  
The election is seen by Washington as a crucial precursor to a complete US military withdrawal by the end of 2011.
  
The UN's envoy to Iraq has said that while he was concerned by the level of violence, it had not affected preparations for the election.
  
"We are concerned about the security of candidates and election organisers," Ad Melkert said Monday.
  
"But what one does not see is a general pattern that might really affect also the assessment of whether the campaign as such is enabling the Iraqi people really to express their preference."
  
A total of 352 Iraqis were killed as a result of violence in Iraq in February -- 211 civilians, 96 police and 45 soldiers -- which was nearly double the toll from the previous month.