Iraq suicide bombings kill 23, Pakistani hostage released

BAGHDAD, Monday (AFP) - At least 23 people died and more than 80 were wounded in a series of bomb attacks near a mosque in Baghdad and outside a police academy in the north of the country, security officials said.

Amid the Sunday violence, Islamabad said a Pakistani hostage held for two weeks had been released, while controversial politician Ahmed Chalabi said delays in forming a government were playing into the hands of insurgents.

Two explosions late Sunday in a mixed Shiite-Sunni district of the Iraqi capital apparently targeted an area close to the Shiite Hussayniah al-Beit mosque, killing 16 and wounding 50."A bomb exploded and, when people ran out near the Hussayniah al-Beit mosque, a car driven by a suicide bomber ploughed into them," an interior ministry official said.

Earlier, two suicide car bombs went off outside a police academy in Tikrit, killing at least seven people and wounding 37. Police casualties accounted for five of the dead, police and hospital sources said.

The mosque bombing was the latest in a series of attacks on Shiites, with a suicide car bomb exploding outside another Shiite mosque during weekly prayers on Friday, killing nine people and leaving 26 wounded.

In Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that a kidnapped Pakistani embassy employee was released Sunday and in good health despite his two weeks in captivity.

"Malik Mohammad Javed has been released, he is hail and hearty," Aziz said during a live telecast. "We are thankful to the countries who helped in his release," the premier said, without naming any nation.

There has been a sharp upsurge in attacks in recent days after a relative lull that followed the successful January 30 elections. Chalabi, a former Pentagon favorite and member of the election-winning United Iraqi Alliance, said the delay in forming a government favors the insurgents.

"We need a government immediately, and the delay in forming the cabinet has encouraged the terrorists, and I believe that we must move forward very, very quickly," Chalabi told CNN in an interview.

Prime minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari hopes to announce a cabinet on Thursday, but Sunni demands for eight posts has extended negotiations, Chalabi said.