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Surge of violence in Iraq

More than 100 civilians killed, scores wounded in two days

BAGHDAD: Sunni-led militants killed at least nine persons, including women and children, with a car bomb in a crowded vegetable market on Friday in the second blast against Shias in as many days, police said. The death toll rose to nearly 100 from the previous day's coordinated string of suicide bombings and mortars in another town.

In Basra, an Iraqi police convoy was ambushed late on Thursday, killing four policemen and wounding one, said police Capt. Mushtaq Khazim.

The surge of violence before an Oct. 15 referendum on the Constitution has killed at least 194 persons, including 13 U.S. service members, in the past five days.

The militants have vowed to wreck the referendum, whose passage is crucial to prospects for starting a withdrawal of American troops. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the most feared militant group, has declared an ``all-out war'' on the Shia majority that dominates Iraq's Government. Moderate Sunni Arab leaders have urged their community to reject the Constitution, saying it will fragment Iraq and leave them weak compared to Shias and Kurds.

On Thursday, three suicide attackers exploded near-simultaneous car bombs in the heart of the bustling, mainly Shia town of Balad, 80 km north of the capital, killing at least 99 persons and wounding 150, police and hospital officials said.

Among the dead were 13 children and four women, and among the wounded were 35 children and 25 women, said Dr. Khaled al-Azzawi of Balad hospital.

Also among the victims were Sunnis who run some of the stands in the market, though their exact number was not known.

5 U.S. soldiers killed

Also on Thursday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of five U.S. soldiers a day earlier in a roadside bombing during combat in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a hotbed of militancy.

It was the deadliest single attack against American troops in more than a month, bringing to 1,934 the number of U.S. service members who have died since Iraq's war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Until Thursday, however, Balad, the site of a major U.S. military air base, had seen few major attacks.

In Washington, the top American commander in Iraq said the process of withdrawing troops depends greatly on the results of the referendum and elections set to follow if the Constitution passes.

``The next 75 days are going to be critical,'' Gen. George Casey told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.

But Sunni Arab success in rejecting the Constitution would set back the political process for months, prolonging Iraq's political instability. Sunnis make up only 20 per cent of the population, but they could defeat the charter because of a loophole in voting rules.— AP

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