Car bomb blast in Iraq kills 30

BAGHDAD: The death toll from a car bomb blast outside a hospital south of Baghdad rose to 30, with more than 20 wounded, Iraqi police sources said on Thursday.   

The explosives-packed car detonated as two Iraqi police patrols pulled up outside the hospital in the town of Mahmoudiya, witnesses said. Earlier, doctors at the hospital put the death toll at 19, with around 35 wounded.

The bombing is the latest in an apparently stepped up campaign of militant violence over the past week and in the run-up to parliamentary elections set for December. 15.   

Since last Friday, nearly 200 people have been killed in a series of suicide bombings and car bomb blasts, including 77 killed when bombers strapped with explosives blew themselves up inside two Shi'ite mosques in the northern town of Khanaqin.   

Many of the attacks have born a sectarian element, with Sunni Arab insurgents targeting Shi'ite Muslim communities.   

Mahmoudiya is in a violent region south of Baghdad dubbed the Triangle of Death for the high number of attacks.   

It is part of a belt of mixed Sunni and Shi'ite towns in the area where sectarian tensions have spilled over into violence, leading to fears Iraq could be sliding towards a full-blown civil war.