BAGHDAD, Jan 19: Guerillas detonated a suicide truck bomb outside Australia's embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday and hit Iraqi security targets with at least three car bombs, killing 26 people less than two weeks before the Jan 30 elections.
A British security worker and an Iraqi colleague were killed in an ambush, while a third worker, also a foreign national, is missing. They were in a convoy near a power station they were protecting south of the central city of Beiji.
He was the 18th British civilian killed in Iraq since April 2003. The deadliest bombing of the day was a blast near a police headquarters and hospital in eastern Baghdad. The US military said the bomb killed 18 people, including five Iraqi police, and wounded 21.
Half an hour earlier a suicide truck bomb rammed into the security barriers outside the Australian embassy, witnesses said. Two Iraqis were killed and two Australian soldiers were among several people wounded, officials said.
A third vehicle bomb killed two Iraqi security guards near Baghdad's international airport and a fourth bomb killed two civilians and two Iraqi soldiers at a military complex in Baghdad, the US military said.
A police source said another bomb exploded at a Baghdad bank, targeting police as they collected their salaries. Witnesses said at least one person was killed. Australian ambassador Howard Brown said the truck bomb that exploded near his embassy was close to accommodation for diplomatic security personnel.
"It was a car bomb aimed at the building where the security people are based. It was quite a substantial explosion," he said. The Al Qaeda-linked group, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al Zarqawi, said it had carried out three suicide bombings in Baghdad, including the one at the Australian embassy.
Guerillas have repeatedly targeted Iraqi soldiers and police in the run-up to the elections. Iraqi forces are due to provide protection at polling stations on election day.
Militants posted on Wednesday an Internet video showing the killing of two Iraqis who were working for a US communications firm involved in the country's election.
On Tuesday, Iraq's US-backed interim government announced measures to try to prevent bloodshed during the ballot, with land borders to be closed for three days and vehicles barred from getting close to polling stations.
SUNNIS SEEK POLL DELAY: Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the United States say the elections must go ahead, despite calls from many Sunni politicians for a delay to try to win wider Sunni support for the ballot to choose a national assembly. -Reuters
