Suicide bombers killed 27 people in attacks in two Iraqi cities today while two civilians were killed in sepaerate incidents in the worst violence since the country's historic election eight days ago.
Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for both blasts and vowed further attacks on "apostates and their masters".
As the counting of votes continued following the January 30th polls, a Kurdish coalition moved into second place, pushing a bloc led by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi into third. The interim figures match expectation with a Shi'ite alliance well ahead.
While the elections are generally regarded as a success, militants opposed to the US-led occupation continued their bloody campaign of violence.
At least 15 civilians were killed and 17 wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded outside the main police headquarters in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
Police said the bomber tried to ram his car into the police station but was blocked by a concrete barrier and detonated his explosives near civilians instead.
In the northern city of Mosul, 12 people were killed and four wounded when the other suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of police officers in a hospital compound.
A large crater was blown in the road and at least five cars were destroyed. Most, if not all, the victims were thought to be police officers waiting to collect their salaries.
"A lion in the martyrs' brigades of al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq attacked a gathering of apostates seeking to return to the apostate police force in Mosul near the hospital," al Qaeda's Iraqi unit said in a statement posted on a militant Web site.
A separate mortar attack on the city hall building in Mosul killed one person and wounded three. And the Islamist militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it shot dead an Iraqi translator working for US forces and posted a video of the killing on the Internet.
The video showed the hostage appealing to other translators not to deal with US forces before he was blindfolded and shot in the head.
There is still no word on the fate of four Egyptian telecoms engineers kidnapped in Baghdad yesterday and an Italian journalist abducted in the capital last week.
An Islamist militant group has said it is holding Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter with the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, and has threatened to kill her by the end of the day if Italy does not withdraw its 3,000 troops from Iraq.
In a new statement today, the group made no mention of the deadline but said it would decide Ms Sgrena's fate "soon".
Agencies