Suicide bombs kill 31 as Iraq teeters on the edge

A spate of bombings in Iraq has fuelled fears that the country is slipping back into sectarian violence on the eve of nationwide elections.

As Robert Fox warned in The First Post this week the withdrawal of American troops and weakening support for the current Prime Minister, Nuri Al-Maliki, in the run up to the poll have heightened tensions in the country.

Details of three bomb attacks on Monday in the Iraqi town of Baquba, 40 miles north-east of Baghdad have now emerged. The blasts killed 31 people and left dozens injured. Two separate car bombs went off within minutes in the town centre and later there was a third blast at the city's main hospital, where victims of the first attacks were being treated.

The town is predominantly Sunni, the minority Muslim sect represented by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party. Since he was overthrown they have complained of being marginalised by Shia-led governments.

"Maliki himself has done much to refashion his Shia Dawa party into the new 'State of Law' party. But he has failed to reach out to key elements in the Sunni leadership," wrote Fox.

Saturday's parliamentary elections will be the third since the US-led invasion in 2003. Nearly a million security personnel have been placed on the streets to prevent more violence erupting. ·