Bombings kill four in Iraq as rebels rebound

On the other side of the capital shortly afterwards, a bomb targeting Iraqi National Guard troops killed a civilian and wounded three others, police said. The attacks were small-scale by Iraq’s standards, but reinforced the impression of a resurgence in violence that has been so common over the past two years and which seemed to have subsided since the election.

On Wednesday and Thursday, at least 10 bomb blasts throughout the country killed more than 30 people, including 15 in twin suicide attacks in central Baghdad.

The bloodshed has increased pressure on Iraq’s newly elected leaders who have been squabbling over the formation of a government for the past 11 weeks—indecision that some fear could play into the hands of insurgents. Iraq has appointed a President and Prime Minister but key Interior, Oil and Defence Ministers have yet to be chosen. Some Iraqis worry that insurgents could exploit the political vacuum.

US Commanders say the number of insurgent attacks has dropped by about a fifth since the election, but the scale and sophistication of militant operations seems to have increased. High-profile kidnappings have also resumed. An American seized this week from a reconstruction project near the capital was shown in a video broadcast by Al Jazeera television on Wednesday.

The man, identified by the US Embassy in Baghdad as Jeffrey Ake, a water company executive from Indiana, pleaded with US authorities to negotiate for his release and urged US forces to withdraw from Iraq, Jazeera said. —Reuters