IRAQ: Thirty people have been killed by bombs in a police recruitment centre in central Iraq and in a popular market, as politicians wrangled yesterday over a federation bill some fear could unleash sectarian civil war.
US officials have warned of an increase in violence by al-Qaeda and other Sunni Islamic militant groups fighting the US-backed Shia-led government ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which starts on September 24th.
In the worst bloodshed, a bomb killed 17 people in a market in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, local police said. Police in nearby Mosul said the blast was caused by a suicide attacker who blew himself up in the market.
Earlier, a suicide car bomber killed 13 people in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
Ramadi police captain Ahmed Ali said the driver struck outside a recruitment centre where a number of volunteers were gathering to join the police force.
The city is the capital of Anbar province, the deadliest for US troops. Sunni militant groups including al-Qaeda frequently attack recruiting centres for the Iraqi army and police, key parts of Washington's plans to eventually withdraw its forces.
The violence - a day after a wave of car bombs killed 23 people in the volatile ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk - came as Shia and Sunni leaders held last-minute talks to break a deadlock over a bill that defines the mechanism of federalism.
Shia lawmakers plan to introduce the bill in parliament today despite opposition from minority Sunni Arabs, who want amendments to the constitution giving them more rights.
Some Shia leaders want to create a "super region" in the oil-rich south, modelled on that of ethnic Kurds in the north. Sunnis fear that would break up Iraq and cut them off from its oil wealth, which is mostly in the north and south.
Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's government said it would take over formal security control of a second of Iraq's 15 non-Kurdish provinces from foreign forces this week.