Military

DATE=4/29/05

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ (L-Only)

NUMBER=2-324326

BYLINE=NEIL MACDONALD

DATELINE=BAGHDAD

HEADLINE: Deadly Car Bombs Rock Baghdad

INTRO: A spate of car bombs around the Iraqi capital has left at least 30 people dead and more than 90 injured. From Baghdad, Neil MacDonald has this report for VOA.

TEXT: Four bombs exploded in quick succession in Baghdad's Azamiya district Friday morning, inflicting casualties on government security forces and nearby civilians.

The attacks, apparently coordinated, came one day after President Bush phoned soon-to-be-sworn-in Prime Minster Ibrahim al-Jaafari to congratulate him on forming Iraq's first elected government since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein two years ago.

At least 10 Iraqi army and police personnel were killed after one attack hit a restaurant in Azamiya, a mostly Sunni area in the northwest of the city. Bombs elsewhere added to the casualty toll.

In Shia areas, police sealed off the streets, while residents came out with guns to protect neighborhood mosques.

Shia mosques have been the target of earlier attacks in the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

The U.S. military says the attacks are intended to discredit the new government, formed after three months of haggling that followed January 30th elections.

Meanwhile, a statement attributed to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi says that President Bush would "not enjoy peace of mind in Iraq" until U.S. troops leave the country.

Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group is known for high-profile suicide bombings, as well as videotaped beheadings of hostages they accuse of complicity with U.S. forces.

But the group represents only one element in a complex insurgency that also includes former members of Saddam's Baath regime and their tribal allies.

While U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to hunt down insurgent leaders, the new government must bring on board a largely disaffected Sunni population in central Iraq.

The National Assembly overwhelmingly approved Prime Minister Jaafari's Cabinet on Thursday, but only after some last minute deletions of contentious names.

Amid disagreements over how to fit the Sunnis into the new government, the Shia prime minster will serve temporarily as minister of defense -- a post promised to the Sunnis in post-election power brokering.

Mr. Jaafari's transitional government is supposed to draft a permanent constitution before the end of this year. (SIGNED)

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