Suicide bombers kill at least 27 in Iraq
Twin suicide bombings at hospital, command center
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 Insurgents target Iraqi police forces in Mosul and Baquba.
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 Iraqi citizens sound off on U.S.-funded Diyala Radio.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Suicide bomb attacks outside a hospital and a police station killed 27 Iraqis early Monday, officials said.
In Mosul, a suicide bomber outside Jumhuriya Hospital summoned a group of policemen to him and detonated the bomb killing 12 and wounding four, officials and witnesses said.
"I heard an explosion. When I went to check, I saw bodies everywhere," Tahseen Ali Mahmoud al-Obeidi, hospital director, told The Associated Press.
About a half-hour later at 3 a.m., an explosives-laden taxi blew up, killing 15 people, police said.
Col. Dana Pittard, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, said the dead were civilians looking for work, either as police officers or in civilian posts available at the station.
The car bomb was within 50 feet (15 meters) of the police complex and was inside a security cordon at the time of the blast.
CNN's Nic Robertson said the Baquba police station is a joint command and control center, the hub of operation in the area.
Egyptian hostages released
Four Egyptian technicians working for an Egyptian telecommunications company have been freed and are not hurt, the chairman and chief executive officer of Orascom told CNN Monday.
Two of the employees were freed from a villa in a joint operation between U.S. and Iraqi troops, and the two others escaped from the trunk of a car and dodged bullets as they ran to safety, said Naguib Sawiris.
"They are in excellent condition," he said in a telephone interview from Algiers, Algeria.
In addition, one of the kidnappers was caught, Sawiris said.
The two who escaped made their way to the company's headquarters in Baghdad and the other two were with U.S. forces in the Green Zone, he said.
"We are extremely happy," he said.
The four were abducted Sunday morning outside their house in the Jamiah neighborhood of western Baghdad.
The kidnappers demanded a $500,000 ransom in the afternoon, "which we had not responded to," Sawiris said.
The technicians have been in Iraq for a year, working for Iraqna, a subsidiary of Egypt's Orascom.
Giuliana Sgrena, 56, who writes for the Italian newspaper Manifesto, was abducted Friday from her car in southern Baghdad near Baghdad University.
"After interrogating the Italian prisoner ... by the legal committee, it became clear and definite that she is not a spy," said a statement posted on a Web site that commonly publishes messages from Islamic militants.
"Therefore, we in Al Jihad group will release her in the coming few days."
The statement, whose authenticity could not be verified, added: "The blood that has been shed in Iraq will never go without any punishment. We will never rest as long as your soldiers" remain in Iraq.
Italy has 3,000 troops in the U.S.-led coalition.
Sgrena, who has written extensively on women and Islam, has also reported from Algeria, Somalia and Afghanistan -- and this is her eighth or ninth trip to Iraq, her editor said.
"We hope that this communiqué is really true and credible, this time," Angela Pascucci, foreign editor of the newspaper, told CNN.
Election irregularities
The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq announced Monday that it dispatched a high-level delegation to investigate poll and ballot issues in Ninevah province during last week's election to select a National Assembly.
Commission member Safwat Rashid said, "There are numbers of polling stations whose electoral material was looted by gunmen, and voters at the polling station in many areas in this area were targeted by gunmen wearing military and different uniforms."
"They stole ballot boxes, and they tried to bribe the workers," he said. "In some polling stations, gunmen stole election cards, and they returned them in irregular ballot boxes."
Election officials deemed 40 boxes as irregular, Rashid said, and it accepted 445 others.
"The commission discussed all the violations," Rashid said, "and now we are going to take necessary decisions concerning any of these violations, and we will inform the Iraqi people about the results of this investigation."
He did not indicate when officials might take action.
Other developments
Iraqi security forces announced Sunday the arrest and capture of 51-year-old Khamis Masin Farhan al-Ugaydi. He is also known as Abu Sabaa and was a brigadier general in the Iraqi army during Saddam's regime, according to a statement from the interim government. He has been in custody since December 20 after security forces acted on a tip. The government did not explain the delay in releasing news of his arrest.In weekend violence, insurgents Sunday attacked a convoy hauling 18 Kias destined for Iraq's Ministry of the Interior, destroying the vehicles and kidnapping three drivers, Iraqi police said. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb north of Baghdad killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others Sunday, the U.S. military said. Another Marine died Saturday in Babil province, American commanders said. The deaths raised the number of American troops killed since the U.S.-led invasion to 1,448.Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that he saw nothing worrisome about the Shiite Muslims' apparent victory in the Iraqi elections. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," the vice president said the most important result of the elections is the new National Assembly, which will write a constitution. Final results of last Sunday's voting are expected this week.CNN's Ben Wedeman, Jane Arraf, Kianne Sadeq, Arwa Damon and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
