Insurgents unleashed their most violent attacks in Iraq since the country's elections Monday, killing 15 people in mortar and suicide attacks in the northern city of Mosul and 15 more in a car bombing near a police station northeast of Baghdad.
Monday's attacks broke a relative lull in violence since the Jan. 30 elections and may have been an indication that the insurgency is trying to reassert itself after millions of voters defied demands for an election boycott.
In Mosul, a man carrying a bomb penetrated a hospital zone where a group of police was staying. The explosion killed him and 12 police officers. Four others were wounded.
Mortar attacks in the same city killed three civilians. Insurgents have made some of their strongest attacks in Mosul in recent months.
In Baquba, a farming center northeast of Baghdad on the edge of the Sunni triangle, a car bomb exploded near a group of would-be police recruits killing 15 and injuring 17, said Lt. Col. Mohammed Jassim, spokesman for the Diyala provincial police.
In Senate testimony last week, the Pentagon estimated that 1,342 Iraqi soldiers and policemen had died in the line of duty \fighting for a new Iraq,"" in the words of Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense.
He acknowledged that the estimate was probably low.
It was not clear if the Pentagon estimate included the scores of recruits who have been killed in attacks at recruiting centers.
More than 1,400 U.S. troops have been killed since the war began.
