BAGHDAD, Sept. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Deadly car bombings continue to ravage Baghdad on Thursday, one day after 160 people were killed in a wave of attacks across the capital in the run up to the Oct. 15 referendum on the new constitution for Iraq.

A suicide bombing in southern Baghdad's Dora district kills 15 Iraqi policemen and five civilians and wounding 10 others.

   A suicide bomber rammed his car into a police convoy in the morning rush hour in southern Baghdad's Dora district, killing 15 Iraqi policemen and five civilians and wounding 10 others.

   The blast was echoed by two more explosions in the nearby Seha district when two suicide car bombers blew themselves up near patrols of Iraqi police commandos, killing four police and wounding 16 others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

   The police summoned military backup to regain control of the area from unidentified gunmen following the blasts.

   In eastern Baghdad, a car bomb parking on the side of the al-Qanat highway went off near a US military convoy, destroying a Humvee military vehicle and inflicting casualties on the occupants, police said.

   Meanwhile, a roadside bomb blew up next to a minibus carrying Trade Ministry employees on the highway in Baghdad's al-Jadida (New Baghdad) district, killing two of them and wounding five others.

   Iraq's al-Qaida group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for Wednesday's coordinated attacks to avenge a US-Iraqi offensive against Sunni insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar.

   An audiotape on Internet purported to Zarqawi declared "all out war" on Iraq's Shiite majority who swept to power after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Most of Wednesday's victims were Shiite Muslims.

The site of a suicide bombing in southern Baghdad's Dora district.

   The offensive and the counterattack came one month ahead of referendum on a controversial draft constitution.

   Iraq's parliament will send the final text of the draft charter to the United Nations for printing after making several amendments in a bid to appease the disgruntled Sunni Arabs, said Hussein al-Shahristani, deputy parliament speaker.

   The last-minute amendments included a reference to water resources which Sunni Arabs said must be equally treated with oil resources, stating that the Sunnis will have the right to manage the water resources in their areas.

   Both Tigris and Euphrates pass through the areas in mainly Sunni Arab central and western Iraq before they reach the Shiite dominated  and oil-rich southern Iraq.

   The Shiites considered the Sunnis' move as a way to barter water for oil. 

   Despite the changes, the former dominant Sunni Arab minority are vehemently opposed to the federalism contained in the draft which they fear could lead to break-up of the country.   Enditem