Baghdad, Iraq – A series of car-bomb attacks in Baghdad and the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala killed about 30 Iraqis early Sunday, police and witnesses said, while an Interior Ministry source reported that 51 bodies had been found in the capital since Saturday morning.
An attacker detonated a car bomb at an Iraqi army checkpoint in the Sunni Arab neighborhood of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad, killing at least six Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, hospital and Defense Ministry officials said.
Shrapnel and blood covered the area, near the Ibn al-Haitham College of Education. At least four vehicles were damaged.
“It happened just as I was entering the college. I felt the heat reaching my body and shrapnel falling on me,” said Yasmine Ahmed, 23, a student who sustained injuries to her face and an arm.
The main hospital in the neighborhood received the bodies of three of the dead and treated 19 wounded people, officials said. Victims were also transported to another hospital, witnesses said.
Also in northern Baghdad, a suicide bomber apparently targeting a police patrol blew himself up near the headquarters of the state-sponsored al-Sabah newspaper, in the Waziriya neighborhood. One civilian was killed and six were wounded, according to Col. Abdul Aziz al-Nuaimi, an Interior Ministry official.
In other violence Sunday, a U.S. Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Logistics Group died of wounds suffered during fighting in the western province of Anbar, the military said. The area has been racked by a Sunni Arab-led insurgency.
In Karbala, about 60 miles southwest of the capital, a bomber apparently targeting the Shiite Ahl al-Bait mosque set off explosives when his car became snarled in heavy traffic, witnesses said. Several cars were destroyed in the blast, half a mile from the Imam al-Hussein and Imam al-Abbas shrines.
Witnesses said more than 20 people were killed. However, the director of the main hospital in Karbala said three civilians were killed and 23 wounded.
The Interior Ministry source said the 51 bodies found in the capital were handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head and abdomen. No additional details could be obtained.
In Kirkuk, 160 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen kidnapped an Iraqi army officer as he was heading to work from his home, according to Col. Sherzad Abdullah of the Kirkuk police. His whereabouts remained unknown.
The British Defense Ministry said as many as five British personnel were killed in a helicopter crash in Basra on Saturday but has not confirmed reports that the helicopter was shot down. The crash touched off fighting between Iraqis and British troops.
