Suicide car bomber kills 4 in western Iraq

[March 15, 2010]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- A suicide car bomber killed four people and wounded 29 others when his vehicle exploded in a busy street during the morning rush hour in western Iraq.

The blast took place shortly before 9 a.m. in a central street in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad. The city was once at the heart of the Sunni insurgency in the western Anbar province.

The blast went off during the morning rush hour as the street filled with pedestrians, stalls selling tea and day laborers gathering for work, a Fallujah police officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The blast came as Iraq's electoral commission was expected to release updated preliminary results from the voting in all 18 provinces, based on 60 percent of the returns.

There have been fears violence could pick up again in Iraq as the process of tallying votes drags on in the country's complicated vote counting system. Political parties are already jockeying for positions and negotiating new alliances to form the next government.

On Sunday, a week after the balloting, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition edged ahead in the tight race after partial results showed his bloc leading in seven out of 18 provinces -- two more than his chief rival.

The early tally strengthens al-Maliki's chances of retaining the prime minister's post, although he is unlikely to win the majority necessary to govern alone. Instead, the narrow race could lead to months of political wrangling as leaders try to cobble together a coalition government that will rule as American forces leave Iraq in 2011.

The March 7 vote was Iraq's second for a full-term government since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

His closest challenger, the secular Iraqiya bloc led former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, leads in five provinces, while the religious Shiite Iraqi National Alliance and the main Kurdish coalition each lead in three.

The results were based on partial vote counts released over the past three days, with the percentage of polling stations counted in each province ranging from 10 to 67 percent.

[Associated Press; By HAMID AHMED]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.