Suicide bombers kill 24 policemen in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - Suicide bombers have killed 24 policemen in Baghdad.

Fears of civil war have grown among Iraqis in the run-up to an October 15 referendum on a disputed new constitution that is backed by the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government. Sunni politicians oppose the charter.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said bombings in Baghdad in the past 48 hours in which more than 170 people had been killed underlined the need to keep foreign troops in Iraq.

"When a terrible terrorist attack happens ... the response has got to be let's see it through, not let's retreat," Blair, US President George W Bush's main ally on Iraq, told the BBC.

The government has failed to subdue a Sunni Arab insurgency despite repeated US-Iraqi offensives such as one that is under way in the northern town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border.

The deadly attack on the police in Baghdad's southern Doura district followed a wave of violence in the capital on Wednesday that took more than 150 lives, including 114 people killed when a suicide bomber blew up a van in a crowd of labourers.

A statement attributed to Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said the attacks were the opening shots in a war on Shi'ites.

Three suicide bombers were behind attacks on the police in the Doura district, home to an oil refinery and a hot-spot for violence.

The first bomber rammed a car into a truck, killing 15 police commandos, elite units in the battle against insurgents.

Charred bodies covered with a white sheet lay near a burned-out bus in a street littered with shrapnel. Smoke rose from a house near the blast site.

Hours later, two bombers struck two minutes apart, killing at least nine police commandos and officers, police said.

Clashes erupted between police and insurgents after the suicide attacks, which also wounded 21 people.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the latest attacks.

"Our lions are still creating victory with their honourable blood and the battle to avenge the Sunnis of Tal Afar is still being waged in Baghdad and other cities," said a statement on an Islamist website often used by the group.

US Major General Rick Lynch told a news briefing US forces were using all resources to try to kill Zarqawi and were ready to launch strikes on towns where they suspected he might be establishing bases.

"We've got great intelligence which tells us where he's moving to and where he's trying to establish safe havens," said Lynch.

"We're using all assets under our control in conjunction with the Iraqi security forces to find him and kill him."

Sunnis, who comprise 20 per cent of the population, dominated Iraq for decades and resent their loss of influence since Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003 by US-led forces.

They fear the constitution will further marginalise them by granting autonomy to southern Shi'ites in line with that enjoyed by Kurds in the north and decentralising control of oil revenue.

- REUTERS