Car bomber kills 34 in suicide attack on hospital

A SUICIDE car bomber attacked a hospital south of Baghdad yesterday, killing 34 and wounding dozens more, as militants stepped up their campaign of violence before elections next month.

The car packed with explosives detonated as Iraqi security forces were gathered outside Mahmoudiya General Hospital and as United States soldiers were visiting the facility to look at ways to improve it, according to the US army and other witnesses.

Another car bomb exploded near a crowded market in Hilla, 62 miles south of Baghdad, killing up to four people, police reported.

In the hospital blast, four US troops were wounded, but most of those killed and injured were civilians.

The bombings are the latest in a series of suicide attacks and car-bomb blasts which have killed nearly 200 people since last Friday, in what appears to be an increase in violence by insurgents ahead of parliamentary elections due to be held on 15 December.