BAGHDAD, Oct 11: At least 46 people were killed in attacks in Iraq on Tuesday, including a suicide car bombing in a crowded market, just four days before a vote on the new constitution that guerillas have vowed to disrupt.

In the bloodiest strike, 30 people were killed in the car bombing in the market of Tal Afar in restive northwestern Iraq, claimed by the Al Qaeda group headed by Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Another 16 people were killed in a rash of bombings and shootings, starkly underlining the battle facing Iraqi forces in their efforts to secure the country for Saturday’s referendum on the constitution.

The new charter aims to turn another page in the political transition of the war-ravaged country following the toppling of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

But it has caused deep divisions between the majority Shias and their Kurdish allies and the once-powerful minority Sunni community.

Tal Afar police chief Najm Abdallah said 30 people were killed and 45 more wounded in the attack in the town, where less than a month ago US and Iraqi forces said they had wrapped up an operation against guerillas.

“A lion from the martyrdom-seeking Al Baraa bin Malek Brigade carried out a heroic attack on Tuesday morning against a gathering of the apostate police and guards in Dawrat al-Qalaa in Tal Afar,” said an internet statement from Al Qaeda in Iraq, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.

It said the attack targeted a building used as a base by ‘God’s enemies’, and that ‘no less than 70 apostates’ were killed or wounded.

In Baghdad, five soldiers and two civilians were killed in another suicide car bombing on Tuesday, while two policewomen were shot and killed as they rode in a taxi.

Four policemen were also gunned down in the northern city of Kirkuk and two civilians and a policeman from the same family were shot dead in Baquba, north of the capital.

Iraqi and US authorities have warned the violence that has plagued the country since Saddam’s downfall would increase in the run-up to Saturday’s referendum, which Sunnis have vowed to vote down.

“I expect violence, because there’s a group of terrorists and killers who want to try to stop the advance of democracy in Iraq,” US President George W. Bush said on Tuesday.

But he added: “I also expect people to vote, which is a remarkable achievement.”

DANISH PM: A group of 24 Danes filed suit on Tuesday against Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen over the Scandinavian country’s role in the Iraq invasion.