Friday, April 29 2005 17:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: At least 23 people were killed and some 90 others wounded in a string of nine car bomb attacks targeting security forces in and around Baghdad early today (Apr 29, 2005), an Interior Ministry official said.

Deadly explosions also struck the Kurdish northern city of Arbil and the southern Shiite city of Basra.

The attacks came a day after Parliament voted in the new Government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, with several seats left vacant.

Thirteen people died, including seven soldiers and two policemen, and 50 were wounded, including 13 soldiers and two policemen, in four apparently coordinated car bomb attacks in two districts of the capital at about 8:00 AM (09:30 IST), the official told sources.

At least some of the cars were believed to have been driven by suicide drivers.

An Agency photographer saw the remains of one hand, believed to belong to a bomber, chained to the steering wheel of a burned out car.

Nine died, including four policeman and three Interior Ministry commandos, and 35, mostly civilians, were wounded when three more car bombs exploded in Madain, a town some 30 kilometres south of the capital that was swept only 10 days ago by the Iraqi Army in search of insurgents.

An Iraqi soldier was killed and three injured by an eighth car bomb, which exploded next to an Army convoy in an eastern district of the capital at around 10:30 AM (12:00 noon IST), security officials said.