Triple suicide blasts kill 30 in Iraqi city

The bombings - Iraq's deadliest in weeks - come as Iraq is preparing for March 7 parliamentary elections. The crucial balloting will decide who will oversee the country as US forces go home and help determine whether Iraq can overcome the deep sectarian tensions that have divided the nation since the 2003 US-led invasion.

US and Iraqi officials have warned repeatedly that insurgents were expected to launch such attacks in an attempt to disrupt the crucial vote. A man purporting to be Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi - the leader of an Al-Qaeda front group in Iraq - has vowed to violently disrupt the vote.

The bombings could also affect the candidacy of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, who came to power in 2006 and oversaw a return to relative stability in 2008 and 2009.

Al-Maliki has continued to bill himself as the best candidate to assure security in Iraq.

A police spokesman in the volatile Diyala province, Capt. Ghalib Al-Karkhi, said the blasts struck in quick succession in Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, and also wounded 48 people.

First, a suicide car bomb targeted a local government housing office next to an Iraqi Army facility. Within minutes, another suicide bomber blew up a vehicle about 200 meters down the street from the first blast at an intersection near the provincial government headquarters where many police and army personnel were located, al-Karkhi said.

A third suicide bomber, wearing an explosives vest, rode in an ambulance with the wounded to the city's emergency hospital and blew himself up as rescuers and victims from the first two blasts were being rushed in for treatment, he added.

Most of the victims came from the blast at the hospital, al-Karkhi said. Police later safely detonated a fourth car bomb about 220 yards (200 meters) from the hospital.

An official in the Diyala police department who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media confirmed the death toll; Kazinform cites the Arab News.

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