37 killed in Iraq election day violence

BAGHDAD - At least 37 people were killed and 62 injured in bomb and rocket attacks at various places of this capital city on the day of parliamentary election in the country, an interior ministry source said.

Twenty five people were killed and 19 wounded when a mortar round struck a residential building in Baghdad’s north eastern Ur area Sunday, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Four people were killed and eight injured when a building collapsed after a powerful bomb explosion in the al-Shurta al-Rabia neighbourhood in south western Baghdad, Xinhua reported quoting the ministry source.

Also in the day, a rocket struck Hurriyah area in northern Baghdad, killing four people and injuring six.

According to the source, two people were killed and six injured in a roadside blast outside a school which was used as a polling booth at Khadraa in western Baghdad. A similar blast in southwestern Jihad district killed two more people and injured five.

In addition, separate bomb explosions wounded 12 people in Jihad and Grai’at districts in the capital, he said, adding six people were injured in different mortar attacks in Jihad and Adhamiyah.

The election is regarded as a test for Iraq’s national reconciliation and political process as it has been struggling to boost security in the past few years and preparing itself for a planned full withdrawal of US troops by the end of 2011.