Special report: Tension accelerates in Iraq

Iraqi hospital employees transfer a dead civilian to the morgue of a local hospital in the city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. (AFP)

    BAGHDAD, March 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Six car bombs rocked Baghdad on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens of others.

    A latest explosion occurred in Jadriya neighborhood of central Baghdad, killing one policeman and injuring three others, police sources told Xinhua.

    About an hour earlier before the Jadriya explosion, a car bomb blew up in Mahmudiya, 30 km south of central Baghdad, killing one person and wounding three others including two policemen, said the police sources.

    In northeastern Baghdad, a car bomb targeted a police patrol at around 11:45 a.m. (0845 GMT), leaving one person dead and 10 others wounded, including nine civilians and one police commando, a police source told Xinhua.

Iraqi people gather round the wreckage of a car March 6. (Reuters)

    "The bomb detonated near the Mustansiriyah Square," the source said.

    Earlier, a suicide car bomb went off in the restive southern Dora district in Baghdad, injuring four people.

    "The bomb attacked a car which was carrying money to a bank," police sources said, adding the four injured included two policemen and two staff members of the bank.

    Earlier in the day, a car bomb rocked central Baghdad at around 10:10 a.m. (0710 GMT), injuring three people, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

    "The bomb blew off at around near the Higher Education and Science Research Ministry," the source said.

    At about 9:25 a.m. (0625 GMT), a car bomb detonated near a police patrol in northern Baghdad neighborhood, wounding four people, the Interior Ministry source said.

    "A car bomb parking in the al-Maghrib Street detonated when a police patrol was passing by in Adhamiyah neighborhood," he said on condition of anonymity.

    Monday morning was marked by a string of car bombing attacks in Baghdad as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani announced that the inaugural session of the new parliament will convene on Sunday, March 12, thus starting the timetable of electing a new government to lead the violence-ravaged country in its staggering political process. Enditem