IRAQ SPINING OUT OF CONTROL: DOZENS KILLED IN BAGHDAD BOMBING

Tuesday 10 March 2009

by: Visit article original @ BBC News

At least 33 people, including a local army chief, have died and 46 have been injured in a suicide attack on the western edge of Baghdad, officials say.

The attack took place in the Abu Ghraib municipality, and appeared to target a group of dignitaries as they left a national reconciliation conference.

Violence levels have declined in Iraq recently, but this is the third major attack in the last few days.

More than 30 died in an attack on a police recruitment centre on Sunday.

On Thursday, a car bomb exploded at a cattle market in Babel province killing 10.

The BBC's Mike Sergeant in Baghdad says it is too soon to say whether the attacks constitute a pattern but they show that life in Iraq is still dangerous.

Troop Reductions

The bomb exploded as delegates came out of the conference, attended by a large number of VIPs.

Police sources said tribal leaders, police, soldiers and journalists were among the dead in the latest attack.

Two journalists for the Cairo-based independent TV station al-Baghdadiya were among the dead, and an al-Iraqiya journalist was wounded, reports said.

Al-Bagdadiya correspondent Suhaib Adnan and cameraman Haider Hashim were both killed, a station spokesman said.