Car bomb in Iraq market place kills 12

At least 12 Iraqis were killed in a car bomb explosion on Friday in a surge of violence ahead of an October constitutional referendum that has claimed more than 110 lives in two days.

The bomb ripped through a crowded marketplace in the southern town of Hilla. Police and health officials said 47 were wounded in the attack, just hours after three car bomb blasts killed 98 in the mainly Shi'ite town of Balad Thursday night.

Twenty-five children were among those killed in the last two days, part of an insurgent campaign of suicide bombings, shootings and assassinations intended to topple Iraq's U.S.-backed government.

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Three Iraqi policemen killed in bomb attack

Three Iraqi policemen were killed and four wounded when a bomb exploded next to their patrol in the northern town of Kirkuk.

"One vehicle was completely burnt with three policemen inside," Captain Mohammed Adil said Saturday.

The second patrol car was badly damaged and its four occupants wounded, he added.

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US frees 500 more prisoners from Iraqi prison

The US military released about 500 detainees from the notorious US-run Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the second group to be released ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Those set free were given new white jelabas, copies of the holy Koran and the equivalent of 25 dollars in cash.

Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for prison operations in Iraq, said about 42,000 Iraqis had been detained by the US military since the March 2003 invasion, of whom about 11,240 had since been released.

On Monday, a first batch of 507 inmates were freed from Abu Ghraib, where a prisoner abuse scandal last year dealt a severe blow to the credibility of the US-led occupation of Iraq.

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