Up to 20 killed as six car bombs target US, Iraqi forces across Baghdad

SIX car bombs targeted US and Iraqi troops across Baghdad yesterday, killing as many as 20 people, and the military said two US Marines died the day before in a roadside bombing near the Jordanian border.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber hit an Iraqi army base in the Shaab neighbourhood of northern Baghdad, killing eight Iraqis, including civilians and security personnel, Major Khazim al-Tamimi said.

A suicide car bomb exploded yesterday in western Baghdad targeting a police commando patrol, killing six policemen and wounding 11, police captain Taleb Thamer said.

Two Iraqi soldiers died and six were wounded when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb near an Iraqi patrol in Andalus Square in central Baghdad, Col Salman Abdul Karim said.

A car bomb also exploded near a US convoy in the Rustamiyah area of south-eastern Baghdad, wounding two Americans, the US military said.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 14 people wounded in a suicide car bombing at the former

Defence Ministry building in northern Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

Another car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, wounding six people, including a US soldier, police said.

Also yesterday, a roadside bomb exploded as a US military patrol was passing near the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Amiriyah, police lieutenant Majed Zaki said. US soldiers and Iraqi insurgents exchanged gunfire after the blast, he said.

In addition, a car bomb was discovered near Yarmouk Hospital, the largest in west Baghdad, police said, Security forces blocked the road and called experts to dismantle it.

A US military statement put the overall death toll at 20 but gave no breakdown by attack. Al-Qaida’s wing in Iraq claimed responsibility in internet statements for the attacks in Rustamiyah and Andalus Square.

The explosions occurred on the Muslim day of prayer, ordinarily a relatively quiet period in the capital.

The two marines assigned to the Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division were killed on Thursday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb near Trebil along Iraq’s border with Jordan, the US military said.