Car bomber kills 34 outside hospital

A suicide car bomber attacked a hospital south of Baghdad yesterday, killing 34 people and wounding dozens more as militants stepped up their campaign of violence before elections next month.

The explosives-packed car detonated as Iraqi security forces were gathered outside Mahmoudiya General Hospital and as US civil affairs soldiers were visiting the facility to look at ways to improve it, the US army and witnesses said.

Another car bomb exploded near a crowded market in Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad, killing up to four people, police said. Police earlier said up to 14 may have been killed.

In the Mahmoudiya blast, four US soldiers were wounded, but most of those killed and injured were civilians, including Hoda Ali Mahmoud, a 30-year-old woman whose young son was killed. She had taken him to the hospital for treatment for a cold.

"Police sources said one of those killed in Mahmoudiya may have been the secretary-general of the Iraqi Workers Party, a member of the Iraqi Parliament. No other details were immediately available.

The bombings are the latest in a series of suicide attacks and car bomb blasts that have killed nearly 200 people since last Friday, in what appears to be an increase in violence by insurgents ahead of December 15 parliamentary elections.

A little known group called "The Supporters for the Sunni Community" claimed the Hilla attack, an internet statement said.