[07/March/2010]

BAGHDAD, March 7 (Saba) -- The death toll from bomb and rocket attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, rose to 37 and 62 others wounded, as Iraqis voted for the country's parliamentary election, an Interior Ministry source said, according to Xinhua.

In a bomb attack early in the day, the death toll rose to 25 with 19 others wounded when a mortar round struck a residential building in Baghdad's northeastern neighborhood of Ur, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"Our latest reports said that 25 were killed and 19 others were injured by the blast in Ur neighborhood," the source said, adding that part of the building was destroyed.
Meanwhile, four people were killed and eight others injured when a building collapsed after a powerful bomb explosion in the al-Shurta al-Rabia neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, the source said.

Also in the day, four people were killed and six injured when a Katyusha rocket struck the dense populated neighborhood of Hurriyah in northern Baghdad, the source added.

In a separate incident, two people were killed and six others injured in a roadside bomb explosion outside a school used to be a voting center in western Baghdad neighborhood of Khadraa, he said.

Two more people were killed and five others injured in a roadside bomb at Jihad district in southwestern Baghdad, the source added.

In addition, separate bomb explosions wounded 12 people in Jihad and Grai'at districts in the capital, he said.

Also in Baghdad, six people were injured in mortar barrage on the neighborhoods of Jihad in southwestern Baghdad and Adhamiyah in northern the capital, the source said.

The election is regarded as a test for Iraq's national reconciliation and political process as it has been struggling to boost security in the past few years and preparing itself for a planned full withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of 2011.

Saba