Violence surges across Iraq
In a day that has seen violence surge throughout the country, bombers blew up two cars outside a base used jointly by US marines and Iraqi National Guards.
A US commander had said earlier on Sunday that several US and Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the double attack east of Falluja.
“The first vehicle was a black BMW that exploded while driving through the barrier system outside the base. It was followed seconds later by a blue Kia pick-up truck, which also detonated in the barrier system,” a military statement said.
The base is located in Karama, a small town between Falluja and Baghdad.
Fighters have repeatedly targeted Iraqi security forces, accusing them of collaborating with US forces and their allies in the interim government.
US troops have staged repeated attacks in Falluja on sites that the US military describes as being used by followers of alleged al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Nation-wide attacks
Other attacks occurred throughout the country on Sunday.
A US fuel tanker was burned when a military convoy came under attack by unknown armed men on the highway near Al-Adli (justice) neighbourhood, west of Baghdad.
 |
|
Many Iraqi children have had to |
US troops subsequently closed the highway.
Earlier in the day, Aljazeera obtained video footage showing the detonation of a roadside bomb that targeted a US tank near Abu Ghraib, also west of Baghdad.
In the Yusifya area south of Baghdad, a booby-trapped car exploded when a US military patrol drove by.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in any of the incidents.
Meanwhile, three Iraqis were killed in western Ramadi when several rockets hit their houses in the Tamim neighbourhood. The rockets also damaged a number of houses and cars in the area, medical sources said.
Elsewhere in Ramadi, a vacant building was blown up on Sunday evening by unknown persons. The multi-storey building was known to be used by US army snipers.
Sadr City raided
In the central Baghdad district of Sadr City, a five-year-old Iraqi child was killed and nine people, including another child, were injured in a US air strike, sources told Aljazeera.
 |
|
Sadr City in central Baghdad has |
The strike, conducted by US helicopters and tanks, caused damage to a crowded residential neighbourhood.
Casualties were transferred to a nearby hospital. The US attack started on Saturday night and lasted until early Sunday.
In a separate development, US troops arrested a senior commander of the US-trained Iraqi National Guard for alleged ties to armed fighters.
Lieutenant-General Talib al-Lahibi, who previously served as an infantry officer in the Iraqi army, was detained on Thursday in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Boylan, a spokesman for US-led forces in Iraq, said on Sunday.
Boylan said that the authorities were trying to clear up confusion over what exact position al-Lahibi held within the Iraqi National Guard.
Tankers ablaze
Medical sources said on Sunday 10 people were killed and 26 wounded in an assault on a convoy of petrol tankers south of Baghdad.
According to Iskandariya police Lieutenant Muhammad Masudi, fighters opened fire on the convoy, setting all five trucks ablaze and damaging three Iraqi National Guard vehicles escorting the convoy.
 |
|
Five petrol tankers were set on |
Security officials said the attack prompted an intense firefight between the attackers and the Iraqi forces.
They said both sides sustained casualties, as did the truck drivers, whose nationalities were not immediately known.
The head of the general hospital in the city of Hilla, 100km south of the capital, said he had received three dead and 23 wounded.
Dr Razzaq Jabbar, from another hospital in Iskandariya, 50km south of the capital, said six bodies and three wounded people were brought in following the attack.