Iraq insurgents kill 18 in string of attacks

A suicide car bomber killed seven policemen in Saddam Hussein's home town and gunmen shot dead eight people in a minibus south…

A suicide car bomber killed seven policemen in Saddam Hussein's home town and gunmen shot dead eight people in a minibus south of Baghdad today in the latest attacks to threaten Iraq's January 30 election.

A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it carried out the bombing against what it called "cowardly mercenaries" at police headquarters in Tikrit, a Sunni Muslim stronghold in northern Iraq. Eight officers were also wounded.

Repeated guerrilla attacks on the Iraqi police and soldiers who will be tasked with protecting polling stations have deepened fears of major bloodletting on the day Iraqis vote in the controversial election.

Shortly after the explosion, gunmen attacked a minibus travelling through Iraq's notorious "Triangle of Death", killing eight people and kidnapping three, police in the area said.

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Police said it was not immediately clear who was in the vehicle. Sunni insurgents regularly target Iraq security forces and Shi'ite pilgrims in the lawless zone of dusty towns, which is regarded as one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq.

Cars are routinely stopped by insurgents setting up illegal checkpoints to search for those they regard as collaborators with US-led troops and the American-backed interim government.

In the northern Iraqi city of Samarra, a roadside bomb against a joint US-Iraqi convoy killed two Iraqi National Guards, and a second bomb killed a policeman, police said.

Leading Sunni Arab political parties say they will boycott the election because violence in the Sunni heartland will scare away voters and skew the results in favour of majority Shi'ites, who expect to emerge dominant after years of oppression.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged today there were what he called pockets of Iraq that would be too unsafe for voting in a January 30th election, as guerrillas killed 20 people in attacks.

Mr Allawi promised to spend $2 billion to beef up Iraq's security forces to combat insurgents trying to derail the vote. "Certainly there are some pockets that will not participate in the election. We don't think it will be widespread," Mr Allawi, a candidate in the election, told reporters.