An Iraqi policeman walks past destroyed vehicles after twin suicide car bombs struck Baghdad on Thursday. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD, 15 April 2005 — A pair of car bombs exploded near the Iraqi interior minister’s offices here yesterday, killing 18 people and wounding three dozen others. The blasts during the morning rush hour broke the lull in violence since elections in January.

Two other bombs were found in the area and were detonated by controlled explosions that caused no casualties, said US Capt. Jeff Dirske. Reporters at the scene had earlier said that a third bomb killed one person.

The suicide bombs detonated in quick succession near an Interior Ministry building on a crowded street, destroying 15 cars and scattering debris over a wide area, witnesses said.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the blasts, the latest in several weeks of stepped up attacks that followed a relative lull in violence in mid-March.

In a statement posted on the Internet, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, said the bombings were targeting Interior Minister Falah Al-Naqib, who is in charge of the nation’s police. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.

Naqib was in his office at the time of the attack, but he left to examine the damage and announced that he was fine. The explosions didn’t damage the building where he works.

Interior Ministry official, Capt. Ahmed Ismael, said the first two blasts killed 18 and wounded 36. One government worker said five garbage collectors he was supervising were among the dead.

There was more violence outside Baghdad yesterday. A car bomb blew up near a US military base in Tikrit, killing four Iraqis and wounding nine, police said. The US military said an American soldier and two Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the blast.

In Latifiya, south of the capital, gunmen shot dead the mayor. And in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, a bomb blew up as a US convoy was passing, killing one and wounding another, police said.

In Kirkuk, seven gunmen riding in two vehicles fired on the police station just south of Kirkuk shortly after dawn, killing five police officers and one civilian, police Brig. Sarhat Qadir said.

Militant group Ansar Al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in an Internet posting that its “knights of Islam” attacked “renegade policemen doing their morning training.” The claim couldn’t be independently verified.

The Baghdad blasts sent large plumes of smoke rising over the city and threw passers-by to the ground. The surge in violence comes after two visits by senior US officials in the past few days, with both lauding Iraq’s transition to democracy while warning more work must be done.

In another development, it was reported yesterday that Britain might start pulling its troops from Iraq in 2006. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in an interview published yesterday that a timeframe for withdrawal may be drawn up toward the end of this year.

— With input from agencies