Many killed in deadly Baghdad blasts
A string of blasts in Iraq have killed several people, including a US soldier and a number of Iraqi policemen.
The US soldier was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near their vehicle, the US command said on Tuesday.
The explosion happened late on Monday during a patrol south of Baghdad airport.
Earlier, a car bomb also went off in Zayyuna neighbourhood east of Baghdad, targeting an Iraqi patrol.
Iraqi journalist Walid Khalid told Aljazeera that a bomber drove an explosive-laden car through a checkpoint in the Zayyuna area north of the Iraqi capital.
Khalid said he was told by Iraqi police that the suspect was chased by two police vehicles when he blew up the car, killing and injuring at least six policemen and burning the two vehicles.
Earlier on Monday, two separate bombs exploded in Baghdad, including one targeting a US military patrol and a senior Interior Ministry official. The two explosions killed nine people.
The first blast came from a roadside bomb that went off at 9.35am (0535 GMT) on Monday in northern Baghdad as a US patrol was walking through the area, said US Master Sergeant Greg Kaufman.
The bomb exploded in the Huriya district of northwest Baghdad as a small convoy of vehicles carrying Major-General Rashid Fulaih, the commander of a police commando unit linked to the Interior Ministry, was passing by.
Kaufman said no Americans were hurt, but Aljazeera learned that Fulaih and three of his bodyguards were wounded in the attack.
Karrada explosion
A short time later, a car bomb exploded in the Karrada district, a busy neighbourhood in southern Baghdad, killing at least nine passersby and wounding 10 others.
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Eighty-seven British soldiers |
Initial reports said four people were killed and eight injured.
Iraqi police said the bomb also damaged shops and set fire to a six-storey building containing a store and many apartments.
Several parked cars were also destroyed.
Police Lieutenant Ali Husain said there were no US or Iraqi patrols or convoys in the area at the time of the attack.
British soldier killed
Meanwhile, a British soldier died on Monday from injuries sustained in “hostile action” in Iraq.
“We regret that a soldier from 12th Mechanised Brigade has today died from injuries sustained in hostile action,” a British Defence Ministry spokesman said, giving no other details.
He said the fatality brought to 87 the total number of British military personnel who have died in Iraq since the US-led invasion on 20 March 2003 that ousted Saddam Hussein’s government.