Baghdad, Iraq – At least 11 people were killed in car bombings Saturday, including seven who died when a car bomb exploded near a line of vehicles outside a gas station in the Karrada neighborhood of central Baghdad, police said.
The attack comes less than a week after another car bomb killed six people in Karrada, a Shiite district considered one of Baghdad’s safest neighborhoods.
Police said another car bomb blast flattened an apartment building Saturday morning in al-Amil, a largely Shiite neighborhood of southern Baghdad, killing at least two people and injuring 12, including seven police officers. A minibus outside the building had been packed with explosives, police said.
Two Iraqi civilians were killed and five hurt when a car bomb exploded in the Rustafa neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
Continuing a pattern of what is believed to be sectarian warfare, 23 bodies were found in various neighborhoods in Baghdad, police said.
The victims, including four women, had been tortured and shot in the head.
Eight Shiite men were killed when gunmen stormed their house in the largely Sunni town of Jebala, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, police said.
The military announced that troops had captured a “senior leader” of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The military says the man operated a network of insurgent cells in and around Mosul.
At least six suspected insurgents were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said. Military forces were targeting a suspected weapons dealer south of Baqubah, the provincial capital, when gunmen began firing from nearby buildings.
The military said the airstrike was necessary to protect women and children the gunmen were using as shields.
Meanwhile Saturday, El Salvadoran President Tony Saca said his nation will send a fresh contingent of troops to Iraq but fewer than the 380 there now.
El Salvador is the only Latin American nation still part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic have withdrawn troops.
“We’re going to send a new contingent in August,” Saca said at a news conference. But, he added, “we’re going to be reducing our participation in terms of the number of troops.” Saca did not say how many troops would be in the new contingent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
