Wednesday January 5, 2005 2:46 PM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4712534,00.html BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A car bomb exploded outside a police academy south of Baghdad during a graduation ceremony Wednesday, killing at least 20 people amid a surge in violence ahead of a landmark election. Hours earlier, another car bomb killed two Iraqis in the nation's capital.
The bloodshed brought the death toll to more than 90 in the last four days. Despite the insurgency - which U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces have been helpless to prevent - American and Iraqi leaders insist the vote would go forward as scheduled despite the violence aimed against holding the ballot.
``We will not allow the terrorist to stop the political process in Iraq,'' Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite leader, said Wednesday. ``The elections process is the basis for the deepening of the national unity in Iraq.''
The explosion outside a gate of the police academy in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, was the latest in a string of attacks against Iraqi security forces. Capt. Hady Hatef said it killed at least 20 people and wounded unspecified number.
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