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Source: Reuters -
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Bombs killed five Iraqi policemen and at least two civilians,
police said, and the vice president blamed insurgents trying to
delay this month's withdrawal of US troops from towns and
cities.
A string of attacks has cast doubt on the ability of Iraqi forces
to keep the lid on a stubborn insurgency after US combat troops
pull back from towns and cities by June 30.
Thursday's blasts came just a day after at least 72 people died in
a market bombing in Baghdad.
"The political nature of these attacks is becoming clear. They are
an attempt to delay or suspend the withdrawal of US forces from
Iraqi urban centres according to the timetable," Vice President
Tareq al-Hashimi said in a statement.
Police in the once turbulent but recently secure western city of
Falluja said a roadside bomb there destroyed a police vehicle and
killed all five policemen inside.
Falluja in Anbar province was once the heartland of the rebellion
against the US military and government forces.
Hours later, at least two people died and 30 others were wounded
when another bomb struck a crowded bus terminal in the south of the
capital, a hospital source said.
In eastern Baghdad, the US military said nine US soldiers were
wounded when two roadside bombs hit their patrol.
Hateful crimes
Violence has dropped sharply across Iraq in the past year, but
militants including Sunni Islamist al Qaeda continue to launch car
and suicide bombings aimed at undermining the Shiite Muslim-led
government and reigniting sectarian conflict.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a member of Iraq's Shiite majority,
urged the world on Thursday to denounce the bloodshed.
"We call on the international community, especially Arabic and
Islamic states, to make a clear and decisive stance against these
hateful crimes," he said in a statement.
"Keeping silent is no longer an acceptable stance."
Late on Wednesday, an explosion tore through a busy second-hand
market in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City slum, killing 72 people just
four days after US forces handed control of the Shiite area to
Iraqi troops and police.
On Saturday, a massive truck bomb killed 73 people near the
northern city of Kirkuk.
That and the Sadr City market bombing were the bloodiest attacks
in the country for more than a year.
Maliki has urged Iraqis not to lose heart if insurgents take
advantage of the US military drawdown to step up attacks.
Analysts say attacks are also likely to intensify ahead of a
parliamentary election in January that will be a test of whether
the country's feuding factions can live together after years of
sectarian slaughter unleashed by the 2003 US invasion.
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