IRAQ: Nine suicide car bombs exploded in a series of apparently co-ordinated attacks across the Iraqi capital yesterday, killing more than 20 people and wounding about 100, police sources said.
US forces said 20 Iraqis were killed, including 15 civilians in just three attacks. Police reports said at least 23 were dead and about 100 hurt.
Reuters journalists filmed the aftermath of five big explosions. Iraqi police sources said they were among nine suicide car bombs during the day, all described as targeting US or Iraqi military or police patrols.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for five suicide car bomb attacks in the capital, before police reported a further four.
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, Shia-led government took power in April.
US generals have said the situation is improving. But the nine suicide car bombs in Baghdad were 50 per cent more than the six reported countrywide for the entire previous week, a figure a US spokesman had just announced as the lowest in 11 weeks. Three American soldiers were hurt but none killed, US military spokesman Lieut Jamie Davis said.
"Dead and mangled bodies of women and children is what terrorism stands for," said Col Joseph DiSalvo, commander of US forces in Baghdad's eastern half, in a statement.
Firefighters doused the flames near one blast site which targeted Iraqi troops in the north of the city, where several cars were destroyed and blood-soaked survivors argued with police.
"The [ Iraqi] army vehicles were parking right here when a speeding Daewoo car approached and exploded. It split in two parts," 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. 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.
Another apparent suicide car bomb exploded outside a garage. The four other attacks were in Kamsara, Sweib, Amriya and Sadiya.
The last was apparently the deadliest, with 11 people killed including two police, and 24 wounded.