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31 killed in Iraq blasts

BAGHDAD: Two suicide car bombers struck within a minute of each other and just a km apart in south Baghdad shortly before noon Thursday, killing at least seven policemen and raising the day's bombing death toll in the capital to at least 31, police said. Earlier on Thursday, the day's first suicide car bombing killed 16 policemen and five civilians in the same neighbourhood, signalling a new round bomb violence one day after residents suffered through Baghdad's bloodiest day of the war.

Three civilians were killed when a roadside bomb struck a Ministry of Industry bus in eastern Baghdad. Thirteen were injured in the attack, said police Lt. Col. Ahmed Abbod. The U.S. military and Iraqi police drove through Baghdad's Dora neighbourhood, where the bombings were concentrated on Thursday, warning residents to stay indoors because five more car bombers were said to be ready to attack, police Capt. Ali Abdul Hamza said. Streets in the southern neighbourhood were abandoned.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq said it launched the attacks on both days. Chief military spokesman in Baghdad Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said the militants had become desperate as Iraqis prepared to vote in an Oct. 15 referendum on a new constitution.

``Remember, democracy equals failure for the insurgency. So there has to be heightened awareness now as we work our way toward the referendum. ...That's power, that's movement toward democracy,'' he said at a Thursday briefing.

AP

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