Ten suicide bombs in Iraqi capital, 25 dead

BAGHDAD - Ten suicide car bombers exploded in a series of apparently coordinated attacks across the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 100, police sources said.

All appeared to target US or Iraqi security forces, police said. Reuters journalists saw the aftermath of five. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for those, before police reported a further five suicide car bomb attacks late in the day.

They followed an abortive triple suicide attack on Baghdad's government compound on Thursday and a strike close to a US patrol that killed 27, many of them children, a day earlier.

On Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, streets are generally quieter, which may have held down the casualty toll.

Suicide attacks, mainly believed to be orchestrated by foreign militants like al Qaeda's Iraq wing in alliance with Iraq's minority Sunni Arab insurgents, have increased sharply since a US-backed, Shi'ite-led government took power in April.

US generals have said the situation is improving. But the 10 suicide car bombs in Baghdad on one day alone compared to just six countrywide for the entire previous week - a figure a US spokesman had annnounced as the lowest in 11 weeks.

Three American soldiers were hurt but none killed, US military spokesman Lieutenant Jamie Davis said.

"Dead and mangled bodies of women and children is what terrorism stands for," said Colonel Joseph DiSalvo, commander of US forces in Baghdad's eastern half, in a statement.

CAR SPLIT IN TWO

Firefighters doused the flames near one blast site which targetted Iraqi troops in the north of the city, where several cars were destroyed and bloodsoaked survivors argued with police.

"The (Iraqi) army vehicles were parking right here when a speeding Daewoo car approached and exploded. It split in two," eyewitness Raed Salman said.

A police source said eight people were killed in that blast, of whom six were Iraqi soldiers.

In the New Baghdad district in the southeast of the city, eyewitness Basim Mohammed said he saw a car bomber ram an armoured US convoy at high speed.

Another bomber struck near Andalus square in the town centre.

Reuters correspondents in central Baghdad heard that blast, followed by gunfire. Police said it injured five Iraqi soldiers and a civilian.

Smoking wreckage of cars was also visible at a large blast site near the old Iraqi Defence Ministry headquarters. Iraqi troops ran around and gunshots could be heard after the blast. Police sources said 19 Iraqi soldiers were wounded there.

And another apparent suicide car bomb exploded outside a garage, witnesses and Iraqi police sources said. Police said three civilians were injured. US forces were near.

"We were stopping here with our bicycles when a car drove near the garage. It tried to enter but exploded outside. Broken glass rained down on our heads," said Hassan Talib, a witness.

The five other attacks were in the Kamsara district of the capital, at Sweib on the city's southern outskirts, in Amriya in western Baghdad, in Sadiya district and in the southern neighbourhood of Dora as night fell.

The Sadiya attack was apparently the deadliest, with 11 people killed including two police and 24 wounded.

The Sweib attack wounded 29 civilians and 7 soldiers and killed three; four were wounded and 1 killed in Amriya and three wounded in Kamsara, police said. In Dora, two people were killed and eight wounded.

Al Qaeda's Iraq wing claimed responsibility for attacks as they took place throughout the day.

"A lion from our brigade ... staged a heroic attack on a unit of the apostate (Iraqi) guard," one statement said.

The Baghdad bombs were not the only violence in a day of attacks that raged across the country.

Police said a suicide bomber on foot injured five people at a Shi'ite mosque at Jabila, south of Baghdad. Two Iraqi policemen were killed and a third injured by gunmen just north of Baghdad.

US Marines said two of their troops had died in a roadside bomb strike on Wednesday in the remote Western desert.

- REUTERS