The two attackers drove explosives-packed cars at police stations and the third assailant, apparently wearing a military or police uniform and on foot, blew himself up in the grounds of the city's main hospital. The attacks were the bloodiest in the immediate run-up to a parliamentary election on Sunday.

BAGHDAD: Suicide bombers attacked two police stations and a hospital in a city northeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 31 people and wounding 48 others before a parliamentary election.
The attacks were the bloodiest in the immediate run-up to a parliamentary election on Sunday that is seen as pivotal for the war-scarred nation as US troops prepare to end combat operations in August, ahead of a full withdrawal by end-2011.

Police said two attackers drove explosives-packed cars at police stations in the centre and west of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of the capital, in volatile Diyala province where Sunni Islamist groups like al Qaeda still battle US troops and Iraqi security forces.

The third assailant, apparently wearing a military or police uniform and on foot, blew himself up in the grounds of the city’s main hospital as the wounded were taken there for treatment, police said.

The sectarian slaughter unleashed after the 2003 US-led invasion has largely receded, but relations remain strained between once dominant Sunnis and the Shi’ite majority that was empowered by the fall of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

The immediate run-up to the election has been marred by sporadic political violence and assassinations.

So far the campaign has not witnessed a major bombing of the sort that devastated government buildings and hotels in Baghdad in January, December, October and August.