Sepcial Report: Tension accelerates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, May 14 (Xinhua) -- A string of car bombs and roadside bombs raged across Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 24 civilians and wounding dozens of others as political leaders are struggling to form a much-awaited government.

Iraqi residents walk past a burnt vehicle after a bomb attack near the airport in Baghdad May 14. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

    The bloodiest attack occurred when two suicide car bombings went off near a U.S. military checkpoint outside Baghdad international airport, killing 14 civilians and wounding six others.

    "Terrorists killed 14 Iraqi citizens and injured at least six when two vehicles packed with explosives detonated near a Victory Base checkpoint in west Baghdad May 14," the U.S. military said in a statement.

    It said the attack targeted Iraqi civilians rather than the U.S. compound.

    "This was not an attack on the compound. Instead, it targeted Iraqis congregated in a parking lot," the statement said.

    The incident is under investigation by Iraqi authorities, it said.

    Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol went off at about 9:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) on Palestine Street. The blast also hit a passing-by minibus, killing four civilians and injuring seven others, including two policemen.

    Elsewhere, a roadside bomb went off in a crowded market in southeastern Baghdad, killing five people and injuring 15, an Interior Ministry source said.

    The blast took place at about 11:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) in a vegetable market in Jesr Diyala neighborhood, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Another two car bombs rocked central Baghdad's Palestine Street, killing one and wounding 11, according to the Interior Ministry source.

    In Tikrit of northern Iraq, two bodyguards of the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari were killed and three others wounded when a roadside bomb struck their convoy.

    Zebari was not present in the convoy, police said, adding that one of the vehicles was destroyed in the attack.

    In the southern city of Basra, two British soldiers were killed and another injured by a roadside bomb, the British Ministry of Defense confirmed on Sunday.

    The soldiers from the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment were killed when their armored Land Rover was hit by an explosion on a routine patrol just outside Basra at about 11:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) Saturday, the ministry said in a statement.

    The latest surge of violence came amid political leaders are struggling to form the new government.

    A Shiite lawmaker said on Sunday that the Iraqi cabinet is likely to be formed within this week although the key portfolios of interior and defense ministries have remained vacant till now.

    "Hopefully, the cabinet list will be presented to parliament within this week," Bahaa al-Aaraji, a lawmaker from the largest Shiite bloc in the parliament, told reporters in Baghdad.

    He said that the hotly-contested interior and defense portfolios, still vacant at present, might go to Prime Minister-designate and prominent Shiite leader Nuri al-Maliki until independent figures were named later. Enditem