27 killed as blasts rock Shiite areas of Baghdad

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-iraq-bombings-20120106,0,880838.story

The early morning blasts followed deadly attacks Wednesday that targeted the homes of police officers and a member of a government-allied militia. Those attacks, in the cities of Baqouba and Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad, killed four people, including two children, officials said.

The latest violence comes as Iraqi politicians remain deadlocked in a festering political crisis that threatens to re-ignite sectarian tensions in the country.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government, dominated by Iraq's majority Shiites, issued an arrest warrant for the country's top Sunni politician last month. The Sunni official, Vice President Tariq Hashemi, is currently holed up in Iraq's Kurdish north -- effectively out of reach of state security forces.