BAGHDAD — Suicide bombers in a crowded Baghdad commercial district and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit killed at least 33 people Sunday as insurgents tried to turn a months-long deadlock over forming a new Iraqi government to their advantage.
The attacks added weight to warnings that insurgents would try to foment unrest as politicians squabble over forming a government more than three months after inconclusive national elections.
The latest violence began when bombers drove two cars packed with nearly 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate toward the gates of the Trade Bank of Iraq building in Baghdad and detonated the explosives after striking the surrounding blast walls, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi military.
Three Iraqi police officials and a doctor at the Yarmouk hospital, where many victims were taken, put the toll at 28 killed and 57 wounded.
Hours later, a man wearing an explosives vest blew himself up as police and onlookers responded to a roadside bomb apparently set as a trap in Tikrit. At least five people were killed and 12 wounded in the late-night attack, according to police and hospital officials.
