BAGHDAD, Dec 19: Bombs exploded in three Iraqi cities and two senior officials survived assassination attempts on Monday as partial election results suggested the new government will be dominated by Shias.

An Iraqi lawyer said two women known as “Dr. Germ” and “Mrs. Anthrax”, weapons experts under Saddam Hussein, were among 26 senior aides being released. A US military spokesman said only that eight “high-value detainees” were freed on Saturday.

A German woman hostage released on Sunday was safe and well in Baghdad, but an Iraqi militant group posted an Internet video claiming to show the killing of an American abducted this month.

Hundreds of angry Iraqis staged protests as the government hiked fuel prices to bolster an economy battered by war, sanctions, under-investment and widespread violence.

The level of violence has risen since the peaceful poll on Dec. 15, the first parliamentary election since the war in which Sunni Arabs voted in strength.

In the latest attacks, a suicide car bomber targeted a convoy carrying an Iraqi police colonel in Baghdad. Two civilians were killed by the blast, which left the smoking wreckage of eight cars strewn across a street. The colonel, two bodyguards and five civilians were wounded.

In another district, gunmen fired on the convoy of Baghdad’s deputy governor Ziyad al-Zawbai. Three of his bodyguards were killed and Zawbai was wounded.

Attackers also set off bombs in Basra wounding three bodyguards of an adviser to the defence minister, and in Miqdadiya, 90 km northeast of Baghdad, wounding four civilians.

SHIA COALITION LEADS: Partial results from the election suggested the government tasked with taming the violence will be dominated again by Iraq’s main Shia coalition, at odds with Washington over human rights and ties to Iran.

The coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, may hold on to a slim parliamentary majority despite a big turnout by minority Sunni Arabs who boycotted the last election in January.

The alliance has been criticised by US officials for its record in government this year and by Sunni Arab rebels who accuse it of backing sectarian militias.

The partial results showed the alliance had won 58 per cent of the vote in Baghdad against just 14 per cent for former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who had been expected to mount a stronger challenge in the capital.

HOSTAGE SAFE: Germany, which opposed the US-led invasion of 2003, said 43-year-old archaeologist Susanne Osthoff was safe in Baghdad after being held hostage since Nov. 25.

While the Osthoff family feted her release, an insurgent group said it had killed an American hostage.

The Islamic Army in Iraq posted a video on the Internet showing a gunman firing repeatedly into the back of a blindfolded man kneeling on the ground.

The group said the man was US contractor Ronald Schulz. The video was posted 11 days after the group said it had killed him because the US government had failed to meet its demands, including the release of prisoners in Iraq.

At least six other Western hostages — two Canadians, a Briton, two Americans and a Frenchman — are believed to be held in Iraq. Their fate remains unknown.

US and Iraqi forces say they are making headway against the insurgency in a conflict that has killed many thousands of Iraqis in the past three years and made life dangerous and miserable for millions more.—Reuters