At least 32 people were killed and 42 were wounded in three coordinated suicide attacks, which occurred in the central Iraqi city of Baquba just days before parliamentary elections seen as a crucial precursor to a complete US military withdrawal from the country, Al Jazeera has said.
The first attack reportedly took at about 09.30 a.m. (06.30 GMT) on Wednesday near a government building, when a suicide bomber detonated the explosives inside his car.
Another car bomb exploded outside the provincial council's headquarters within minutes. A third suicide bomber blew himself up near a local hospital, to which the wounded were taken.
The TV channel said a local police chief was the target of the third suicide bombing.
"The bomber followed crowds of the wounded into the hospital and detonated himself in an effort to get the police chief as well," Al Jazeera's correspondent said.
The police chief, Major-General Abdul Hussein al-Shimmari, reportedly escaped unharmed, but a number of his security guards were wounded.
The attacks came amid heightened security across the country ahead of Sunday's polls, posing a threat to peaceful intentions of U.S. President Barack Obama, who has pledged to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from the country by the end of August if the elections go well.
MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti)
