US Military: 200 deaths "PREDICTABLE", highlight progress!

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Brutal insurgent bombings that killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad over the past two days were a "predictable spike in violence" tied to the coming referendum on Iraq's new constitution, the U.S. military said Thursday.

As suicide bombers kept up their campaign for a second day, at least 31 people were killed - 23 of them Iraqi police and Interior Ministry commandos, now targets of choice for the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

At least seven of 570 people wounded in Wednesday's attacks have died, hospital officials said, raising the toll to at least 167 in the worst day of killing to hit the capital since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

"These spikes of violence are predictable around certain critical events that highlight the progress of democracy," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the chief American military spokesman.

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