Suicide truck bomber kills 22 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Sunday (Reuters)

A suicide bomber in a truck blew himself up outside a Baghdad police station on Sunday, killing at least 22 people and wounding 25, police and interior ministry sources said.

The bloodshed came amid growing tensions over a committee drafting a constitution that is seen as a vital mechanism for drawing Arab Sunnis, who form the bulk of the insurgency, into a peaceful political process.

The blast in the Mashtal area of eastern Baghdad killed and wounded both policemen and civilians, the police sources said.

Television pictures showed a deep crater in the road as ambulances and firefighters attended the scene. The wreckage of a vehicle smouldered more than an hour after the blast.

"This is a very cowardly act carried out by criminals, not mujahideen," said a police major who gave his name as Kasim.

Militants have stepped up suicide bombings in the last two weeks in a campaign designed to topple the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. There have been more than 20 suicide attacks in the past 10 days alone.

Sunday's attack was the deadliest since a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a fuel truck on July 16, causing a huge conflagration that killed 98 people in a town south of Baghdad.

Sunni officials on the constitution-drafting committee, who walked out after a Sunni member and an observer were shot dead last week, say they will not return unless their demands, including for an international investigation, are met.

In Amman, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Iraq would finish writing the constitution and hold elections at the end of the year, even if the country's once dominant Sunni minority continued to boycott the process.

"It is in the interest of the Sunnis to participate without making excuses," Zebari told Reuters.

"If they do not take part, the constitution will not reflect their hopes and ambitions and the process will not stop. There is a timetable and Iraq has to honour international commitments according to U.N. resolutions," said Zebari, who chaired a meeting of senior Iraqi diplomats in the Jordanian capital.