Iraq Watch: April 12, 2006

Car Bomb Near Baqouba Kills Over 20

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb detonated near a Shiite mosque in the small town of Huweder, near Baqouba, Wednesday evening killing at least 26 people and wounding over 70 more.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of three U.S. service members – all killed in Wednesday-morning roadside bomb attacks. Two MND-B soldiers died at approximately 9:20 a.m. when their vehicle struck an IED south of the capital. The third U.S. service member was killed at 10:00 a.m. while on patrol in east of Baghdad.

In an attempt to break Iraq's political deadlock, Sunni elder statesman and current speaker of the parliament, Adnan al-Pachachi, called for parliament to convene Monday.

However, Shiite leaders quickly shot down al-Pachachi's announcement and said that any meeting of parliament was unlikely until the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) agreed upon a candidate for the coveted position of prime minister.

In other violence Wednesday, a suicide bomber rammed his car into an outdoor vegetable market in Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of the capital, killing at least three and wounding seven.

Separately, a car bomb exploded north of Baghdad, in Khalis, leaving at least two Iraqis dead and over 20 injured. In Sulayman Beg, also north of the capital, a roadside bomb killed two Iraqi policemen.

In the capital itself, at least six people – including three government employees – were gunned down Wednesday.

Elsewhere, militants killed four Iraqi policemen in two separate attacks near the northern city of Mosul. In the industrial town of Beiji, 180 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers.