Blast spree greets new Iraq govt

After three months of delays that US officials have said gave new strength to the insurgency, the dominant Shia alliance won approval for a new Cabinet on Thursday — but not before angering Sunni political leaders who charged that they had been shortchanged.

Insurgents used an increasingly common tactic today: Multiple bombings designed to kill not only the victims of the initial blast but also security forces and bystanders who rushed to the aid of the wounded. The attacks began just after 8 am, with four car bombs in the Ahdamiya neighborhood, home to many former Baathists and insurgent sympathisers. The attacks there killed seven Iraqi national guardsmen, two policemen and four civilians and wounded 50 others, an Interior Ministry official said.

A few hours later, a car bomb aimed at a passing convoy of Iraqi National Guard troops detonated in the Ghadeer district of southern Baghdad, and 15 minutes later a second car bomb exploded in the same spot, killing a civilian and wounding four troops and four civilians, an Interior Ministry official said.

The network of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi took responsibility in an internet statement for several of the Baghdad suicide bombings as well as for attacks elsewhere in Iraq. Altogether, the group said, it launched a dozen attacks today, dedicating them to the memory of Omar Hadeed, an insurgent leader killed fighting American forces in Falluja in November. —NYT