06 January 2005	Thursday	24 Ziqa'ad 1425

HILLA, Jan 5: A suicide bomber killed 15 people at a police academy graduation on Wednesday, part of a wave of killings aimed at stopping Iraq's Jan 30 elections, but the interim prime minister vowed the vote would go ahead.

The bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a compound in the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad, in an area known as the "Triangle of Death", and blew it up, police spokesman Hadi Hatif said.

The attack was the latest by guerrillas, who have killed more than 90 people this week alone in a campaign to sabotage the election by targeting the US-backed interim government and its fledgling security services.

It came a day after gunmen assassinated Baghdad's provincial governor and a suicide truck bomber killed 11 people outside a police commando headquarters, a surge of attacks that drew fresh calls for delaying the national ballot.

"The government is committed to running the elections on schedule," Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said at a news conference. "We will not allow violence and terrorists to stop the political process... We know some Iraqis fear voting but we have to overcome those fears."

He insisted he had a plan to safeguard voters but gave few details. Raging violence has shattered any trust in home-grown security forces that hardly seem able to protect themselves.

A hospital official in Hilla, 100kms from Baghdad, said nine policemen were among the dead and 40 people were wounded in the suicide car bombing. Hours later, a suicide car bomber killed six people at a checkpoint manned by police and National Guards in the northern city of Baquba.

Earlier in the day, a car bomb targeting a US military convoy killed two Iraqi bystanders in western Baghdad. The Army of Ansar al Sunna group, which mounted the deadliest suicide attack on Americans in Iraq with a bombing at a US base in Mosul last month, claimed responsibility. -Reuters