BAGHDAD, June 8: A string of bombs that killed at least 31 people in Baghdad on Thursday underlined warnings by US and Iraqi officials that violence will not cease with the death of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq.

In the deadliest blast, a roadside bomb in a crowded market in eastern New Baghdad district killed 13 people and wounded 28, police said.

One car bomb exploded in the northwestern district of Kadhimiya, killing seven people and wounding 17 others, while a second car bomb in the east of the capital killed six people and wounded 13 others, police said.

A third car bomb killed five people and wounded 10 in Shaab, east of the Tigris.

Zarqawi, who had been blamed for some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq, was killed during a US air strike in a village north of Baghdad on Wednesday in one of the most significant developments since the US-led invasion.

US officials, including US President George W. Bush, hailed the killing of Jordanian-born Zarqawi but have warned that his Al Qaeda group still posed a threat.

KEY MINISTRIES: The Iraqi parliament approved on Thursday Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s candidates for interior and defence ministers, ending wrangling that had threatened to plunge his three-week-old unity government into crisis.

New Interior Minister Jawad Al-Bolani, a Shia, and Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim, a Sunni, who until now served as Iraqi ground forces commander, pledged to improve security for all people in strife-torn Iraq.

The legislature also endorsed a minister for national security — Sherwan Waeli.

The vote took place shortly after Maliki — who has promised to heal sectarian wounds and crush the resistance — announced that Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, had been killed in a US air raid north of Baghdad.

The new defence and interior ministers — who both worked in the armed forces during Saddam’s rule — face the monumental task of reining in the kind of bloodshed that killed at least 20 people in two separate bombings in the capital on Thursday.

“I promise (the Iraqi people) that the interior ministry will be neutral, independent and will not be under the influence of anyone,” Bolani said after he won parliament’s endorsement.

“The interior ministry will preserve Iraqi blood,” he added.

Jassim made a similar pledge.

“I do not carry any sectarian title. I’m here for all Iraqis, not for one sect,” he told parliament.

The interior ministry in particular came under intense scrutiny under the previous minister, who Sunni leaders accused of sanctioning Shia death squads, a charge he denied.

Maliki had said he wanted to choose non-sectarian ministers to run his grand coalition of Shias, Kurds and Sunnis.

“These two ministries (interior and defence) will not be the ministries of any party or any sect,” he told reporters.

The key security jobs were left temporarily vacant when the self-styled government of national unity took office on May 20 because of disputes among his coalition partners.

Out of 198 deputies present in the 275-seat legislature, 182 voted for Bolani and 142 backed Jassim.—Reuters