The Iraqi capital Baghdad has turned into a city of violence again on Wednesday as insurgents embarked on a killing spree by staging a series of deadly attacks, leaving more then 100 people dead and more wounded.

This outbreak of violence cast a darker shadow than its precedent since there is just one month to go for a referendum on Iraq's draft constitution, which has torn the already ravaged country further apart.

Earlier Wednesday, a car bomb rattled Baghdad's northern Kazimiyah district targeting a group of construction workers at Oruba Square waiting to be hired for daily work. The suicide bomber drove his car into the gathering before detonating the explosive charge.

The death toll of the single explosion is over 80 and expected to rise further, police said, adding 162 others were wounded.

In another attack, 17 people were killed near Baghdad by gunmen disguised in police uniform early Wednesday, police said.

The gunmen dragged the 17 civilians out of their homes in Taji, 15 km north of Baghdad, and shot them dead in what is believed to be another killing aroused by sectarian hatred in the country.

Two more suicide car bombs rocked Baghdad's Adel and Shala districts Wednesday morning, killing seven people and wounding 26 others, interior ministry sources told Xinhua.

At about noontime, a car bomb blew up near a police patrol in Baghdad's northern district of Adhamiyah, killing two policemen and wounding another.

The al-Qaida wing in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the series of bombings on Wednesday, saying they are in retaliation for the joint US-Iraq military offensive against insurgents in the northern restive town of Tal Afar, according to an Internet statement.

The US-Iraqi forces launched a major offensive since Saturday in Tal Afar near the Syrian border to rid the restive town of Sunni insurgents and foreign fighters blamed for violence in the country. The military said they have killed over one hundred insurgents and captured more in the operation.

The operation is launched as Iraq is heading to the referendum on constitution on Oct. 15, although negotiators representing different ethnic and sectarian groups failed to see eye to eye on key issues like federalism and sharing of oil revenues and water resources.

Technical departments have warned that time is running out for printing and distributing five million copies of constitution to families for review before they decide what to say to the basic law, while insurgents are bent on derailing the political process by hitting targets as they see fit to suit their goals.

As violence rampaged across the country, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani ruled out on Tuesday a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops, backing away from his earlier remarks that the United States could pull out its 50,000 troops by the end of the year.

"We will set no timetable for a withdrawal. A timetable will help the terrorists and encourage them that they could defeat a superpower of the world and Iraqi people," Talabani told a press conference after talks with US President George W. Bush at the White House.

"We hope that by the end of 2006 our security forces are up to the level of taking responsibility from many American troops with complete agreement with the Americans," Talabani said.

The Bush administration has been carefully avoiding a timetable to slash US troops in Iraq, currently about 140,000, and the Pentagon plans to maintain or slightly increase the force level in anticipation of the Oct. 15 referendum.

White House officials said that Bush's strategy for eventually withdrawing troops depends on Iraqis' approving the constitution and holding successful elections in December.

Source: Xinhua