BAGHDAD, April 29: A string of car bombs killed at least 23 Iraqis and wounded 90 in the Baghdad region on Friday, as guerillas stepped up attacks after the formation of Iraq’s first democratically elected government. The attacks, involving up to 10 car bombs, came a day after parliament voted in the new government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, but left several jobs vacant, including the powerful oil and defence ministries.

Thirteen people died, including seven soldiers and two policemen, and 50 were wounded, in four apparently coordinated car bomb attacks in two districts of the capital in the morning.

At least some of the cars were believed to have been driven by suicide drivers.

An eyewitness saw the remains of a hand, believed to belong to a bomber, chained to the steering wheel of a burned-out car.

Nine died, including four policeman and three interior ministry commandos, and 35 were wounded when three more car bombs exploded in Madain, a town some 30 kilometres south of the capital that was swept only 10 days ago by the Iraqi army in search of guerillas.

An Iraqi soldier was killed and eight injured by two more car bombs in an eastern district of the capital. The first blew up as an army convoy was passing. The second exploded an hour later as policemen were about to inspect it.

A 10th car bomb blew up near a mosque in the eastern district of Obeidi, but there were no casualties and only minor damage.

Iraqi and US forces arrested seven suspects in connection with the bombings and wounded one more.

“We see these attacks as another desperate attempt by the terrorists to discredit the newly formed Iraqi government,” a statement said.

The latest surge of attacks came on the same day Al Qaeda’s frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, called on Muslims to step up action against US forces, in an audiotape posted on the Internet.

A separate Al Qaeda-linked militant group claimed on Thursday in an Internet video that it had executed six Sudanese drivers dealing with the US military in Iraq.

Elsewhere in Iraq on Friday, a bomb disposal expert was killed and a civilian injured by an explosion in the Kurdish city of Arbil.

And in the southern town of Basra, a border guard was killed and two injured by a bomb explosion.

NEW CABINET: Iraq’s new cabinet, approved by parliament on Thursday, will be sworn in on Tuesday after its remaining vacant posts are filled, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said.