A bomb exploded in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing three girls and a boy on their way to school as violence targeted all walks of life in the capital. Nearly 20 people were killed in car bombings and shootings elsewhere.

With the bloodshed showing no sign of abating, politicians held protracted talks over formation of a new government, which the US hopes will help stamp out the insurgency by encouraging Sunni Arabs and Shiites to work together.

But new images aired on Australia's Special Broadcasting Service of Iraqi prisoners being abused and sexually humiliated at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 threatened to fan the violence.

"Bringing up these issues is only going to add to heat to an already fragile situation in Iraq and they don't help anybody at all," said Labeed Abbawi, an adviser to the foreign minister. "What Iraq needs at this moment is calm, but these images, which have already been dealt with and seen people punished, will only worsen the violent atmosphere."

The children killed in the bombing the bustling Fadel neighborhood were between 10 and 14 years old and included two daughters and a son of Jamil Mohammed, a vendor in a nearby public market.

"We are poor people who have nothing to do with politics," the father sobbed at the police station. "We only wanted to live a decent life. What is the guilt of my dead children? They were only heading to school. Now I am left with only two children. This is a disaster for my family."

The bomb exploded near a camera shop that also sells alcohol, police Lt. Ali Mittab said. The target was unclear, but Islamic extremists often attack stores that sell alcohol or DVDs deemed pornographic.

Many of the attacks Wednesday appeared directed at Iraqi police, which the United States hopes can take over some security responsibilities so foreign troops can withdraw. But civilians were caught in the carnage, too.

A parked car bomb hit a police patrol in northern Baghdad, killing four officers and wounding two civilians, police said. And gunmen firing from two cars killed a police captain and his driver, also a policeman, in southwestern Baghdad.

Another car bomb killed two civilians near Baghdad's University of Technology and wounded five other people, including three policemen.

Gunmen elsewhere shot and killed a blacksmith at his Sadiyah workshop, a man who opened his door in the southern Dora neighborhood and a civilian driving in the western Ghazaliyah district.

An ex-member of Saddam Hussein's former ruling Baath Party was killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul.

Police also found a man who had been shot in the head left in his car in Taji, north of Baghdad. The bodies of five other men were found shot in the head and dumped near a Shiite neighborhood of western Baghdad, apparently victims of sectarian killings.

US soldiers, meanwhile, killed five insurgents within 24 hours, including one in a shootout south of Baghdad early Wednesday, the military said.

Four US Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle jets also destroyed a Saddam Hussein-era military bunker south of Baghdad that had been used by insurgents to acquire bomb-making materials, the military said. US helicopters scanned the area before the Tuesday evening attack to make sure no civilians were there, the military said.

Also Wednesday, the US command reported that Iraqi soldiers backed by US Army Special Forces troops raided two locations in Diyala province on Sunday, killing two insurgents and detaining 102 suspects.

Shiite politicians met Kurdish counterparts Wednesday, with the Shiites claiming any bloc could participate in the government, a reference to the Iraqi List party of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Allawi, a secular Shiite, has been touted as a possible interior minister, but some hard-line Shiites, including anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, oppose him for the post.

"We have a red line on Allawi's participation, but not on his Iraqi List. It is not just a red line, we completely object," said al-Sadr supporter and lawmaker Nasser al-Saadi.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies February 16, 2006)