The Iraqi capital was hit by twin suicide car bombs yesterday that killed at least eight people as Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a top US ally, made a surprise visit to Baghdad.
Sunni Arabs also yesterday ended their boycott of talks on drawing up a post-Saddam Hussein constitution, which had threatened to delay a key stage in the country's political transition.
The latest bombings came less than less than 24 hours after a massive truck blew up outside a police station in the capital on Sunday.
Yesterday's first bombing targeted the Al-Sadeer Hotel in central Baghdad, which is used by foreign security personnel, an interior ministry official said.
Most of the six killed and 16 wounded were hotel security guards as the bomber exploded the car at the gates to the hotel, which has been bombed in the past.
Just over two hours later, another car bomb targeted a police commando patrol under the Harithiyah bridge in the west of the city, killing two policemen and wounding 11.
The attacks followed Sunday's massive suicide truck bombing against a police station in the southeast of the capital that killed 27 people, many of them policemen. Thirty-three people were wounded.
The explosion outside the Al-Rashid police station in the Al-Mashtel neighborhood left a huge crater in the street, damaged or destroyed 22 cars, and set ablaze 10 shops and a residential building.
"The bodies of the victims, many of whom were policemen, were completely burnt by the blast," an interior ministry official said.
The US military said Iraqi police initially reported a toll of at least 40 Iraqis killed and 25 wounded and that the truck was loaded with 220kg of explosives.
"It appears that the bomber who was driving the truck wanted to enter the police station, but for some reason the explosives detonated 20m before the police station," the ministry official said.
Sunday's attack was the worst since a July 16 attack in the southern town of Al-Musayyib in which a suicide bomber blew up a propane gas tanker, killing 83 and wounding 151.
Meanwhile Howard arrived on an unannounced visit to Baghdad where he was having talks with Iraqi Premier Ibrahim Jaafari.
Australia, a strong US ally, has about 900 troops in Iraq and Australian media reports said he was due to visit them in Al-Muthanna Province.
Howard's visit, during which which is also expected to take him comes a few days after he met US President George W. Bush in Washington and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.
In other developments, Sunni Arabs representatives said they had reached agreement with parliamentary leaders on ending their boycott of talks on drafting a new constitution, Sunni representative on the constitution panel, Salim Abdallah said.
"All our demands were accepted," said Abdallah, a member of the Sunni-based Islamic Party.
Sunni representatives had suspended participation in the talks in protest at last Tuesday's murder of two of their colleagues. They had demanded better security and a full investigation into the murders.
Their boycott had threatened to derail efforts to reach a deal on the constitution in time for parliament to vote on the draft by Aug. 15, a deadline agreed to earlier this year.
The charter will then be put for a Oct. 15 referendum.
US officials said Sunday that they would set up a joint task with the Iraqi authorities to decided on a timetable to hand over the security of the war-torn nation to the Iraqi forces.
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