Iraq car bombs kill 12 ahead of UN vote

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=1&u=/afp/20040608/ts_afp/iraq_worldwrap_040608142444

Iraq car bombs kill 12 ahead of UN vote as four hostages freed

Tue Jun 8 BAGHDAD (AFP) - Twelve people were killed and dozens wounded in car bomb attacks in Iraq ahead of a UN vote on a resolution to give international legitimacy to the new interim government in Baghdad. <snip>

In the latest unrest, 12 people including a US soldier were killed and wounded 68 people in attacks in Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, one of the breeding grounds of the country's deadly insurgency.

A suicide car bomb and a roadside bomb exploded simultaneously in the northern city of Mosul, killing 10 people and wounding 37, according to hospitals.

An hour earlier, a suicide car bomb exploded as Iraqis queued for work at a US military base in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, killing one US soldier and one Iraqi and wounding 31 other people, including 10 US troops, military and medical sources said. <snip>

Any mention of the interim constitution "is illegal and is rejected by a majority of Iraqis", Sistani's office said in a statement as about 2,000 Shiite Arabs marched through the streets of Baghdad.

The Kurds, estimated to make up anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's population, are determined to keep their hard-earned privileges, fearing a return to the recent past when Saddam waged war on them, expelled them from their homes and gassed them.