Blasts hit Baghdad on eve of Saddam trial

BAGHDAD - A series of bomb blasts rocked Baghdad on Monday as insurgents targeted a police checkpoint near the government compound, killing at least two people, fired mortar bombs into a park and attacked a U.S. patrol.
The attacks came the day before the trial of Saddam Hussein was due to resume and as political parties prepared for talks on forming a coalition government the United States hopes will undermine support for a Sunni Arab insurgency.
The chief judge in Saddam's trial told Reuters he was standing by his decision to resign and would not preside over Tuesday's session in the fortified Green Zone compound. Judge Rizgar Amin resigned earlier this month complaining of government interference in the trial.
Despite increased security throughout Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck a checkpoint into the Green Zone, close to the Iranian embassy, which staff said was not damaged in the blast.
Television pictures showed a burnt-out police vehicle still smoldering and the twisted, blackened wreckage of the bomber's car. A foot lay among the blast debris scattered in the street.
Police said two people were killed and six wounded -- three civilians and three policemen.
Minutes later a roadside bomb exploded in the al-Waziriya area, wounding two people. Several mortar bombs fell short of the Green Zone into a park that also houses Baghdad Zoo and an amusement park. Police said no one was injured.
A car bomb blast hit a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in southern Baghdad, wounding two civilians, police said.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said a security clampdown in the capital was still in force amid fears that Sunni Arab rebels, angered by the results of a December 15 election that confirmed the dominance of Shi'ite Islamists, would launch more attacks.
"We are expecting a rise in attacks by gunmen because of the results of the election," a ministry official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
ANGER OVER RESULTS