Three car bombs exploded in the Iraqi capital yesterday, killing at least six people and wounding nearly 50, as politicians met to try to finalize a new Cabinet. Police discovered bodies of 17 Iraqis – apparent victims of sectarian killings the US hopes the new  government can end. 

Elsewhere, in Baghdad and other areas, a roadside bomb, two drive-by shootings and a mortar round killed six other Iraqis, police said.On Sunday, at least three US soldiers and 31 Iraqis were killed, and the country’s largest Sunni Arab party raised new allegations of sectarian killings – one of the most urgent issues facing the new leadership.

The violence underlines the challenges Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki faces as he begins the tough task of assembling a Cabinet out of Iraq’s Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.

Yesterday morning, political parties met separately in Baghdad to discuss proposed Cabinet ministers and were to meet as a group later in the day, said Kamal al-Saeidi of al-Maliki’s Dawa party.

“Baghdad’s first car bomb yesterday exploded during morning rush hour, killing three people and wounding 25”, police said. It blew up on a major street in the center of the city near the Tigris river, close to a complex of government buildings, a hospital and a bus station.

Two hours later, bombs hidden in two cars parked near Mustansiriya University in eastern Baghdad exploded, killing three civilians, including a 10-year-old boy, and wounding 22 people, including five policemen, said police Lieutenant Bila Ali.Police in Abu Ghraib, just outside Baghdad, found a small truck containing the bodies of 15 men who had been tortured in captivity, said police Lieutenant Maitham Abdul Razzaq. Two other corpses were found in Dora in southwest Baghdad and one appeared to have been hanged, said police Captain Qassim Hassan.

Sunni Arabs say Shiite militias have infiltrated the Interior Ministry – controlled by the biggest Shiite party – and used death squads to kill Sunnis. Sectarian violence has flared since the February 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.