BAGHDAD, Sept 15: Suicide bombers killed 24 policemen in Baghdad on Thursday. Three blasts in the southern district of Doura, which also wounded 21 people, dealt another blow to the Iraqi government, already grappling with guerillas in the country’s north and west.

The explosions followed Wednesday’s wave of attacks that cost more than 150 lives in Baghdad, including 114 people killed when a suicide bomber blew up a van in a crowd of labourers.

A statement attributed to Iraq’s Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi said those bombings were the opening shots in a ‘war on Shias’, who, along with Kurds, now hold power.

Clashes erupted between police and guerillas after the suicide blasts in Doura, home to an oil refinery and a hotspot for violence.

The first bomber rammed a car into a truck, killing 15 police commandos, elite units in the battle against guerillas.

Charred bodies covered with a white sheet lay near a burned-out bus in a street littered with shrapnel. Smoke rose from a house near the blast site.

Hours later, two bombers struck two minutes apart, killing at least nine police commandos and officials, police said.

Al Qaeda also claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, without specifying which ones it had carried out.

“Our lions are still creating victory with their honourable blood and the battle to avenge the Sunnis of Tal Afar is still being waged in Baghdad and other cities,” said a statement on a web site often used by the group.

US STRIKES: Maj Gen Rick Lynch of the US Army told a briefing on Thursday that US forces were ready to launch strikes against towns where they suspected Zarqawi might be establishing bases.