Bombs kill at least 33 Iraqis as provincial elections near

BAGHDAD — Suicide bombings in Baghdad and Mosul took the lives of at least 33 Iraqis on Monday in carnage that recalled the levels of violence before the U.S. troop buildup last year.

Dozens were wounded, including four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi general.

The day's violence pointed up the volatility in Iraq as it heads toward two milestones: provincial elections Jan. 31, and the pullback of U.S. combat troops from cities and towns by June 30.

The bombings come a day after the United Nations mission in Iraq warned violence could rise in the run-up to the polls and show the challenges awaiting Iraqi security forces when Americans draw down.

The Baghdad bombing occurred at a police training academy on the eastern side of the Tigris at lunchtime. As students streamed out the gate, a car dropped off a young man — most witnesses say he looked to be 16 or 17 — who walked into the crowd and detonated his suicide vest, according to witnesses.

Moments later the car he had arrived in, which had been parked down the road, exploded. At least 15 people were killed, the Iraqi Interior Ministry reported.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber killed at least 17 people, mainly civilians, in an attack against a joint U.S.-Iraqi convoy, said an Iraqi security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. military reported that nine people were killed, including the bomber; differing casualty figures in the immediate wake of a violent attack are not uncommon.

Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq in the past year, but bombings remain a daily threat.

The Iraqi death toll from war-related violence for November was 339, compared with 278 in October, according to figures from the Health and Interior ministries. The number is far lower than November last year, when 608 Iraqis died in war-related violence.

Compiled from The New York Times, The Associated Press,

Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post reports.