By Alastair Macdonald Thu Jun 23, 4:20 PM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four car bombs shook Baghdad after dawn on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens in the second wave of attacks within hours, police said.
The previous evening car bombs in a mainly Shi'ite district of the city killed 18 people, after a day of talks in Brussels between the new Shi'ite-led government, its U.S. backers and other nations. Islamist guerrillas claimed responsibility.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected an assertion by Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) that the Iraq war had become a q uagmire, but warned Iraq's government not to delay political developments such as drafting a constitution or elections under the new constitution.
"Any who say that we've lost this war or that we're losing this war are wrong," he said at a tense Senate hearing.
He opposed a call in the Senate to consider setting a timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, saying it would "throw a lifeline to terrorists."
But statements by U.S. officials that the Sunni insurgency is fading have been met with skepticism from some lawmakers who are questioning President Bush's Iraq policy two years into a conflict in which at least 1,725 U.S. soldiers have died.
And, Army Gen. John Abizaid, who as head of Central Command is the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, declined to endorse Vice President Dick Cheney's assessment that Iraq's insurgency was in its "last throes." He said more foreign fighters were coming into Iraq than six months ago.
"There's a lot of work to be done against the insurgency," Abizaid said.
Despite a month-long crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi troops and police in Baghdad, al Qaeda allies and other Islamist militants have mounted major attacks on three days this week, while lower level violence is keeping up pressure on all security forces.
Police said a suicide car bomber killed three policemen and seven civilians when he drove at their patrol in the central commercial district of Karrada around 7 a.m. (0300 GMT). A second, similar attack killed seven civilians, they said.
Two other cars exploded in the same area, several minutes apart, one near a Shi'ite mosque. Police and medical sources put the number of wounded at between 23 and 50.
The Army of Ansar al-Sunnah said in an Internet statement it had carried out the three bombings in a joint operation with the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Mujahideen Army.
It said it had exploded a car bomb at a convoy of Iraqi police and when other police vehicles gathered around the blast site, "they entered into the mujahideen ambush where two other cars were detonated." The group later said it exploded a fourth car against Iraqi police in the same area, killing seven.
MINORITY SUNNIS
Guerrillas have killed some 1,200 people, including around 120 U.S. troops, since the Shi'ite-led government was formed two months ago. Minority Sunnis dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein and are the majority in the rest of the Arab world.
In addition to the 18 dead, Wednesday night's coordinated bomb attacks also wounded 48 in the Shi'ite Shola district of Baghdad, police said. The area's main street was devastated.
The al Qaeda organization in Iraq, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for Wednesday's "Sunni reprisal raid."
An Internet statement in Zarqawi's name said a leading Saudi figure in al Qaeda had been killed by U.S. forces at Qaim on the Syrian border. U.S. troops bombarded suspected insurgents there several days ago and said they killed 47.
Abdullah al-Roshoud was on Saudi Arabia's wanted list. The statement said he moved to Iraq six weeks ago to fight.
Zarqawi's group said an Iraqi guerrilla and four foreign militants were killed by U.S. forces at a house in Baghdad's Jamiaa area, where residents heard a fierce battle overnight.
"SHOW YOUR FACES"
In Brussels on Wednesday, foreign leaders endorsed Iraqi government commitments to draw Sunnis into the political process. Many from the minority community failed to vote in January elections.
Iraq's security minister said he was in touch through intermediaries with some anti-American, nationalist rebels and was trying to break their links to the foreign Islamists.
"There are nationalists within the insurgency who are against the (U.S.) occupation. We are urging them to show their faces and come to the table," Abdul Karim al-Enzi told Reuters.
One of the highest legal authorities in Sunni Islam, the Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gumaa, said resisting occupation was a religious duty -- but not killing civilians at random.
"Bloody acts which kill civilians under the slogan of jihad to liberate Iraq are a kind of mockery," he said after meeting an Iraqi Sunni cleric. (Additional reporting by Lutfi Abu Oun, Waleed Ibrahim, Faris al-Mehdawi, Omar Anwar in Baghdad, Sami Aboudi in Dubai, and Will Dunham in Washington)
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