BAGHDAD, March 25: Insurgents assassinated a senior Iraqi army commander on Friday and staged three suicide bombings, killing 18 people, and leaving dozens injured in violence that politicians fear may deepen if a new government is not formed soon. Almost two months after an election, politicians from Iraq’s main parties, the Shia alliance and the Kurds, pursued talks to form a government but were struggling over top cabinet posts. Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a main Kurdish negotiator, said all sides were concerned about the relentless violence.

Gunmen shot dead Major-General Suleiman Mohammad, who commanded a National Guard division in southern Iraq, in the New Baghdad district of the capital, wounding two of his sons, police said. Some said he was attacked leaving a wake, but it was not clear why the Basra-based general was in Baghdad.

American and Iraqi officers said two suicide car bomb attacks killed at least 15 people and wounded 23.

In an attack in Iskandariya, in a lawless area just south of Baghdad, a bomber blew up his car beside an Iraqi army convoy, killing four soldiers and wounding nine troops and civilians, two seriously, local police said.

A suicide bomber blew up his car at a checkpoint in the western city of Ramadi on Thursday, killing 11 Iraqi commandos and wounding nine police, two US soldiers and three civilians, the US military said.

And in another violent assault, five women, four of whom worked at a US military base, were found dead in a car in Baghdad. Those working for US forces, including cooks, laundry staff and translators, are frequently targeted by insurgents.

The Islamic Army in Iraq said it was behind the Ramadi suicide bomb attack, according to an Internet statement.

“A martyrdom-seeker of the Army broke through the first barrier set up by the American enemy and the pagan (National) Guard... and the car exploded as it neared the second barrier,” the insurgent group said in the statement.

At least two Iraqis were killed and 24 wounded, many of them pilgrims marching to the Shia holy city of Karbala, in two suicide car bombings on Friday against the country’s security forces, police and medical sources said.

The latest attack occurred at about when a suicide bomber driving a minibus blew himself up near the Modern Village police station, 55 kilometres from Baghdad, Captain Muthana Jaber said.

Doctor Saad Mohammed at the main hospital in the city of Hilla further south confirmed two dead and 19 wounded in the attack.

Four of the wounded were policemen, he said, while the rest were mostly pilgrims marching to Karbala for the 40-day commemoration of the death of revered Imam Hussein which falls on Sunday.

Two police cars were destroyed at the scene. “We heard the man scream Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) before blowing himself up,” said a man at the scene who gave his name as Abu Mustapaha.

A devastating car bombing in Hilla on February 28 killed some 120 people and wounded scores, sending shock waves through Iraq’s Shia majority community less than a month after historic elections saw the main Shia alliance emerge as much the largest bloc in parliament.

Attacks against Shia funerals and religious processions are frequent with close to 180 people killed almost a year ago in double attacks on Shia pilgrims.—Reuters/AFP