Attacks around Iraq claim 30

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Once again, the highway to Baghdad airport was a scene of mayhem: a mangled vehicle hit by a suicide blast, a helicopter ferrying away casualties. With the airport freshly reopened following landmark elections, insurgents were back in action Thursday on one of Iraq's deadliest roads.\nThe suicide car bombing against a convoy on the highway was one of a string of attacks across the country that killed around 30 people -- including two Marines -- and signaled that guerrillas were uncowed by the weekend election.\nA lull in violence since Sunday's vote brought out a cautious sense of security among Baghdad residents. Throughout the day, outdoor markets were full, and children played in parks. Even Thursday's attacks, which took place outside Baghdad or far from its center, did not disrupt the mood: In the evening, wedding processions of cars festooned with plastic flowers blared their horns in celebration in many parts of the city.\n"People feel safer after the elections ... There are more people out on the streets today," said Jassim Rashq, a barber whose brother -- a Shiite cleric -- was gunned down last year with his son and a bodyguard.\nBut no one is expecting an end to the violence, and some fear it may only increase if resentment over the election grows among the Sunni Arab minority, which makes up the backbone of the insurgency.\nThe post-election lull in attacks had prompted Allawi to declare that the vote's success dealt a major blow to the insurgency. "The final outcome (for insurgents) will be failure. They will continue for months but this will end," he told Iraqi television.\nBut the string of new attacks that began Wednesday night showed the grimly familiar range of tactics that insurgents have been using for months.\nIn the highway attack, a bomber detonated his car near a foreign convoy escorted by military Humvees, destroying several vehicles and damaging a house, Iraqi police said. Witnesses reported helicopters evacuating casualties, but there was no confirmation of dead or wounded.\nIn the deadliest incident, insurgents stopped a minibus south of Kirkuk, ordered army recruits off the vehicle and gunned down 12 of them, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin. Two soldiers were allowed to go free, ordered by the rebels to warn others against joining Iraq's U.S.-backed security forces, he said.\nAn ambush in western Baghdad killed six Iraqi security personnel. Shootings in Baghdad, a mortar attack in the northern city of Tal Afar and an assault on a police station in the southern city of Samawah killed five Iraqis.\nTwo Marines were killed in action Wednesday night in Anbar, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.\nGunmen fired on a vehicle carrying Iraqi contractors Thursday to jobs at a U.S. military base in Baqouba north of the capital, killing two people, officials said.\nAlso, the bodies of two men wearing blood-soaked clothes were found in the western insurgent stronghold of Ramadi. A handwritten note tucked into the shirt of one of the men claimed the two were Iraqi national guardsmen.\nSome of the massive security measures in place for the election have been relaxed or abandoned. Bridges have reopened and fewer roads remained blocked Thursday.\nOn Palestine Street, a major Baghdad thoroughfare, families sat in outdoor cafes sipping fresh fruit juices.\n"We triumphed over terror and broke the barrier of fear inside us," said Shaki Shaker, a Christian. "There is this strange kind of joy in the hearts of many of us. It's like we are leading normal lives again"