Three suicide car bombings kill 23 Baghdad police says

Two suicide car bombers exploded within a minute of each other, just a kilometer (half mile) apart in south Baghdad shortly before noon Thursday, killing at least seven policemen and raising the day's bombing death toll to at least 28, police said.

Earlier Thursday, the day's first suicide car bombing killed sixteen policemen in the same neighborhood, signaling a new round bomb violence in the capital one day after the residents suffered through Baghdad's bloodiest day of the war.

Al-Qaida in Iraq said it conducted the Wednesday attacks; there was no immediate claim for the Thursday attacks.

Al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, purportedly declared "all-out war" on Shiites, Iraqi troops and the government in an audiotape posted Wednesday on an Internet site known for carrying extremist Islamic content, reports the AP.