IRAQ: A car bomb in an outdoor market in Baghdad yesterday killed 22 and injured 28 in one of the worst attacks in recent weeks.
The explosion was at a Shia Muslim market in Doura, a district in the southwest of the city where sectarian attacks between Shias and Sunnis have been frequent over the last two years.
Police major-general Mahdi al-Gharawi said the bomb was detonated by remote control and an Iraqi suspected of triggering the device had been arrested. The car was parked near a police checkpoint. Almost all the victims were civilian.
The attack, along with a suicide bombing on Monday, follows a relative lull by Iraqi standards over the past few weeks as Shia, Sunni and Kurdish politicians have been negotiating the formation of a new coalition government. Nine weeks after the election they are still far from a deal.
The UK foreign secretary, Jack Straw, returned to Britain from the Iraqi capital last night after talks with leaders aimed at breaking the deadlock. He called on them to put aside sectarian differences and form "a broad government of national unity", echoing a call the previous day by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq.
But Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Iraqi prime minister, rejected what he portrayed as interference by Mr Straw and Mr Khalilzad. Mr Jaafari, normally unruffled, showed his irritation at a press conference after meeting Mr Straw. He said: "When someone asks us whether we want a sectarian government, the answer is 'no we do not want a sectarian government' - not because the US ambassador says so or issues a warning . . . We do not need anybody to remind us, thank you."
The US and Britain have been disappointed at the performance of the transitional Iraqi government over the last year, particularly because it coincided with a rise in sectarian killings. A joint Iraqi-US investigation is under way into allegations that killings of Sunnis by Shia police and paramilitaries were orchestrated from within the ministry of the interior.
The US and Britain are keen to see Mr Jaafari replaced by someone they see as more competent, and to ensure that key departments such as interior, defence, economy and oil are run by effective ministers. They are pressing for a coalition government that includes Sunnis.
The UK foreign office said Mr Straw's visit was not related to the row over a video of British soldiers allegedly attacking four youths in Iraq. The department believes the row has not had as much impact in Iraq as in Britain and the severance of relations between Basra council and the British military is more connected to the arrest of Iraqi police for alleged corruption.
Meanwhile, a Jordanian embassy driver kidnapped two months ago by Iraqi militants demanding the release of a failed woman suicide bomber has been freed, Jordanian officials said yesterday. The release of Mahmoud Saedat raises hopes that other hostages may be freed, including US journalist Jill Carroll, who was abducted on January 17th. - (Guardian service; additional reporting Reuters)