http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=national&story_id=011505b11_iraq_carbombsBAGHDAD, Iraq - Car bombs echo across Baghdad and a constellation of cities around Iraq nearly every day, inflicting slaughter and billowing, oily smoke, a reminder to all who see or hear them that the country's insurgents can strike almost anywhere.
Vehicles packed with explosives, often detonated by suicide attackers, have become one of the insurgency's most lethal weapons. An Associated Press tally shows there have been at least 181 of them since Iraq's interim government took over June 28 - just a handful at first but surging to a rate of one or more a day in recent months.
Those bombs killed about 1,000 people, both Iraqis and Americans, and wounded twice as many. The tally found that 68 bombings were suicide attacks, and the rest were detonated by other means. Most involved cars, but some used trucks and even motorcycles.
Less common before June, car bombs have become part of a punishing psychological campaign that has made almost everyone here feel unsafe. They have been used to assassinate Iraqi leaders, attack troop and police convoys, penetrate U.S. armored vehicles being rushed to the country and, seemingly, simply to spread terror.
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