Bombings in 2 Iraqi cities leave at least 21 dead

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An emboldened Iraqi insurgency staged carefully coordinated dual bombings in both Saddam Hussein's hometown and a Shiite neighborhood of the capital yesterday, killing at least 21 people. Legislators loyal to the new prime minister said he was ready to announce a Cabinet that would exclude his interim predecessor, Ayad Allawi.

An American soldier was killed in a separate attack.

Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari has decided, some members of his political bloc said, to shun further attempts to include members of the party headed by Allawi, the secular Shiite politician who had served as prime minister as the country prepared for elections.

Members of Allawi's Iraqi List, which controls 40 seats in the National Assembly, said his party had not been officially informed of the development. Allawi loyalists were bidding for at least four ministries, including a senior government post and a deputy premiership.

Al-Jaafari may name Cabinet soon.

"I heard from the media, and some of the other assembly members told me about it," legislator Hussein Shaalan said. But he said the party would continue to support the government even if excluded from the Cabinet.

Al-Jaafari's list could be put to parliament as early as today, some of his bloc said. Others indicated the Cabinet announcement would be made tomorrow. Many such forecasts have proven wrong.

Many Shiites have long resented the secular Allawi, accusing his outgoing administration of having included former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, which brutally repressed the majority Shiites and Kurds.

There had been intense pressure to end the political bickering after a marked recent uptick in insurgent violence that many in Iraq blamed on the continuing political turmoil nearly three months after the country's historic Jan. 30 elections, the first democratic balloting in a half-century.

Allawi may be excluded from government.

Militant violence over the weekend took at least 38 lives. Insurgent attacks had dropped dramatically shortly after the vote, but spiraled upward in recent weeks as the politicians failed to name a government.

Also yesterday, the U.S. military said it had detained four more suspects in the downing Thursday of a civilian Mi-8 helicopter. All 11 passengers and crew were killed, including a survivor gunned down by insurgents. Ten suspects have been apprehended in all, the military said.

In the most recent violence, a vehicle packed with explosives was driven into a crowd gathered in front of a popular ice-cream shop in Baghdad's western al-Shoulah neighborhood yesterday, police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim said.

Minutes later, as police and residents rushed to help the victims, a second suicide car bomber plowed into the crowd. At least 15 people were killed and 40 wounded.

Members of Iraq's Shiite majority have become a frequent target of Sunni-led insurgents. On Friday, a car bomb ripped through a Shiite mosque in eastern Baghdad during midday prayers, killing 12 people and wounding 22.

In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit yesterday, two remotely detonated car bombs exploded in quick succession outside a police academy, killing at least six Iraqis and wounding 33, police and a hospital official said. The blasts occurred as recruits were about to leave the station and travel to Jordan for training, said police Lt. Shalan Allawi.

Insurgents also attacked U.S. forces. A roadside bomb hit one convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing one American soldier and wounding two, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said two civilians also were wounded in the attack.

An American sailor was killed Saturday when the Marine convoy he was traveling with was hit by a roadside bomb in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.

At least 1,568 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, the country's most-feared militant group, claimed responsibility for the Tikrit and Baghdad attacks in statements on militant Web sites.

The group also claimed responsibility for a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol near the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad. The U.S. military said no one was hurt in that attack.

South of the capital, three insurgents were killed yesterday as the roadside bomb they were trying to plant in Mahawil exploded, said police in nearby Hillah.

In Pakistan, a government spokesman said a Pakistani embassy official who was kidnapped in Iraq two weeks ago was freed yesterday. Malik Mohammed Javed was abducted April 9 after he left his residence in Baghdad to attend prayers at a mosque. The Pakistani government said after his abduction that he was in the custody of a previously unknown Islamic militant group, Omar bin al-Khattab, which had demanded a ransom for Javed's release.

Associated Press writer Qasim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report from Baghdad.