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Iraq Transition

Iraq suffers second day of deadly attacks

At least 30 killed in latest violence in Baghdad, other cities

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three suicide car bombs erupted Thursday in a south Baghdad neighborhood, part of a series of attacks that killed at least 30 people -- many of them police officers.

The violence comes a day after insurgents killed at least 151 people in more than a dozen attacks.

In the face of the two-day killing frenzy, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani asked the world for help in defeating terrorists in a speech Thursday at the United Nations in New York.

"Iraq's war on terror requires diverse international help, not only for the sake of Iraq, but also for the sake of the whole world," he said.

On Thursday morning, a suicide car bombing in Baghdad's Dora district killed 16 police from Iraq's Quick Reaction Force and wounded 21 others -- both police and civilians, a police source said.

Around midday Thursday, two more suicide car bombers targeted police in the same area, authorities said. Police and insurgents exchanged gunfire after the blasts.

The attacks killed four police officers and wounded 10. Two civilians also were wounded.

In other violence:

  • Gunmen in eastern Baghdad killed three pilgrims, who were on their way to Karbala, according to police.
  • A roadside bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad near a bus with Ministry of Trade employees, killing one person and wounding 16, police said.
  • Also in eastern Baghdad, a suicide car bomb exploded near a U.S. Army convoy, wounding three soldiers and destroying their vehicle, an American military spokesman said.
  • Police discovered the bodies of three men near a Shiite neighborhood in northwestern Baghdad.
  • Insurgents launched a mortar or rocket attack on the so-called Green Zone -- a fortified section of the city that houses military and government offices. No casualties were reported.
  • Two police officers were killed in the northern city of Kirkuk when a roadside bomb hit their patrol, a police spokesman said.
  • A bomb exploded at the main entrance to a Shiite mosque in the northern city of Mosul, killing an imam and wounding three others, police and hospital sources said.
  • Wednesday represented one of the war's most violent days.

    The deadliest attack occurred in the Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiya when a bus exploded in a crowd of day laborers, killing at least 112 people and wounding more than 200.

    The group al Qaeda in Iraq purportedly claimed responsibility for Wednesday's strikes, saying they were in retaliation for the U.S.-Iraqi offensive to root out insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar. A U.S. military official said the strikes bore the hallmarks of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born militant who leads that group.

    Later, the Al Arabiya TV network broadcast an audiotape of a man it identified as al-Zarqawi declaring war on the Shiite- and Kurdish-dominated Iraqi government and those who back it.

    The voice, speaking in Arabic, said the group "is declaring all-out war on the rejectionists wherever they are in Iraq, wherever they are and wherever they can be, in fair return since they have begun this and started the attacks and you won't see mercy from us."

    Earlier, CNN reported that the speaker had declared war on Shiites in Iraq. CNN has not confirmed whether the speaker on the tape was al-Zarqawi or if al Qaeda in Iraq's claim of responsibility for the attacks was authentic.

    A U.S. military official said that the surge in violence was expected in the weeks leading up to the referendum on the country's draft constitution, which is scheduled for October 15.

    Iraqi officials sent the document to the United Nations on Wednesday to be printed.

    "We're convinced we're going to fight our way to the elections," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said Thursday, saying that 500 insurgents have been killed or captured in Tal Afar since August 26.

    The recent violence has raised fears of sectarian strife between Sunni Arabs on one hand and Kurds and Shiite Arabs on the other.

    The constitution is a hot-button issue because the Shiite-Kurdish leaders dominating the transitional government back the draft, but Sunni Arabs generally dislike it.

    CNN's Arwa Damon, Enes Dulami, Kevin Flower and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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