A suicide car bomber attacked an elite Iraqi police unit in Baghdad today and killed 13 people in the worst of several outbursts of violence to hit the country.
Iraqi police said the car bomber targeted a patrol of specialist police commandos as they were travelling on a highway in the east of the capital. All those killed were from the commando unit and 10 others were wounded, police said.
The bomb followed clashes overnight between US troops and Shi'ite militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City. Police said eight militia fighters were killed and five wounded in the fighting.
South of the capital, in the city of Hilla, a bomber on a bicycle rode into a crowded fruit and vegetable market and blew himself up, killing four, including a woman and child, and wounding 48, police said.
The string of attacks comes three weeks before Iraq holds a referendum on a new draft constitution and amid a general increase in unrest both in central areas and in the southern city of Basra, where Shi'ite militia have fought British troops.
The US military has said it expects a surge in violence in the run-up to the referendum, set for October 15, with Iraqis strongly divided over a document that was supposed to unite them and lay the foundations for a more stable future.
In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, more than 1,000 people marched to protest against the constitution, which they say will divide Iraq along sectarian lines by giving too much autonomy to Kurds in the north and pro-Iranian Shi'ites in the south.
The crowd in Ramadi was largely made up of Sunni Arabs, whose leaders are strongly opposed to the constitution, but also included Shi'ite supporters of Sadr, a nationalist young cleric who heads a militia called the Mehdi Army.
The march followed a rally in Basra on Saturday at which several thousand Shi'ites gathered in support of the constitution, which was largely drawn up by the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government over Sunni Arab objections.