Iraq: One week, more than 180 dead

Iraqi officials have promised to deploy up to 10 000 extra men to boost security ahead of a December 15 general election after a rebel bombing campaign killed more than 180 people in the past week.

The latest attacks, a suicide car bomb against a hospital in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, on Thursday, killed 30. A car bomb in a shopping district of Hilla, also on Thursday, left three dead and 16 wounded.

An increase in violence is widely expected before the election, the final stage in Iraq's transition to democracy after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

United States forces, meanwhile, have just concluded a three-week operation, code-named Iron Curtain, in western Iraq designed to root out insurgent strongholds near the Syrian border

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