A string of car bombs killed at least 29 people in Iraq today, ramming home to the new government in Baghdad that insurgents are as strong as ever.
An Iraqi boy walks past a damaged car at the scene of a car bomb explosion in the al-Adhamiya district.
Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq appeared to make the same point in an audio tape, purportedly made by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last month, in which the Jordanian vowed more suicide attacks.
The onslaught of bombings included nine in Baghdad and the nearby town of Madaen, one in Baquba, a town just north of the capital, and another in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil.
A 12th blast struck near a US military camp north of Baghdad, killing a soldier and wounding two, the US army said.
In total, at least 29 people were killed and more than 90 were wounded, according to Iraqi police and health officials.
The death of the soldier raised to 1,200 the number of US troops killed in action since the launch of the war.
Several of the strikes involved an increasingly common tactic in which a second bomber hits shortly after the first, with the aim of targeting rescuers and others at the scene.
The attacks came a day after Iraq formed its first democratically elected government since Saddam Hussein's fall, and followed a warning this week by America's top general that the insurgency was as strong now as it was a year ago.
Police said three of the bombs exploded in Madaen, where there have been growing sectarian tensions in recent weeks, with rival Shi'ite and Sunni groups carrying out kidnappings and killings. Similar tensions have emerged in other towns.
Zarqawi's group, which US officials say is intent on sowing sectarian conflict, claimed the Madaen violence in an Internet posting, saying it detonated four, not three, bombs.
On the audio tape, the person purporting to be Zarqawi warned allies against negotiating with US forces, referring to reports that US and Iraqi officials had offered to negotiate with some militants. The tape could not be verified.
"The enemy America is today in an unenviable position due to your successful and concentrated strikes which have forced it to try hard to open dialogue with the mujahideen (holy warriors)," he said. "But be warned this is Lucifer's ruse."
His remarks drew attention to possible divisions among the disparate groups in the mostly Sunni Muslim insurgency, notably between secular nationalists from Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party and foreign Islamists like Zarqawi, a Jordanian.
"O true mujahideen, beware the grand ploy being hatched by Lucifer's aides by night and day," the speaker said.