Baghdad bombs kill at least 13, including kids

updated 2:05 p.m. ET April 4, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded Tuesday in a mostly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, killing at least 10 and wounding 28, police said. Another blast killed a woman and two of her young sons in the capital, officials added.

The latest violence came after the U.S. military reported the deadliest day in almost three months for American service members in the Iraq war. Ten U.S. troops died, including five Marines killed in a vehicle accident in western Iraq. Two Marines and a sailor were still missing after the truck overturned near Asad air base.

The car bomb went off in the poor, mostly Shiite area of Habibiyah, and damaged several cars and nearby sandwich stands, police said. Chaos ensued, and militants from radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army fired in the air to clear the crowds.

The bombing in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad hit shortly after 7 a.m., killing the woman and two boys, 9 and 12. A third son, aged 13, was wounded, as were two brothers of a different family living in the same home, police said.

Assailants gunned down a judge driving in eastern Baghdad and killed a receptionist who works at the United Arab Emirates Embassy and his friend as they left the building, police said.

In Dora, one of Baghdad’s most dangerous neighborhoods, gunmen killed an ice cream vendor and a person sitting with him in the vehicle, police said. A policeman who works at a morgue was also gunned down as he headed to his Dora home.

Politician's son targeted
North of the capital, a car bomb targeted a convoy carrying a Samarra city council member’s son, killing a security guard and a driver and wounding three other guards. The son, 19, was not harmed.

In southern Iraq, gunmen killed a policeman and wounded another as the two were driving in the city of Basra, police said.

Police discovered four corpses, apparent victims of the sectarian violence gripping Iraq. Two were found near a highway in western Baghdad’s mostly Sunni neighborhood of Khadra, both handcuffed and showing signs of torture, and another in southwestern Baghdad’s Shurta district, shot in the head. The other, also handcuffed, was found floating in a small river south of the capital, police said.

The continuing violence made talks to form a new government even more urgent. Politicians have been at a stalemate for months, primarily due to disagreement over who the next prime minister should be.

Sunni and Kurdish politicians have called for the Shiite bloc to replace Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the current prime minister, as its nominee. Last weekend, two prominent Shiite politicians also joined calls for him to step aside.

The only faction showing steadfast loyalty to al-Jaafari appeared to be the one led by al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric. Some 2,500 people marched in support of al-Jaafari in Sadr City, calling for Iraqi leaders to speed up the formation of the government and carrying banners reading “Down with the Conspiracy.” The demonstrators also bore an empty black coffin, with the words “Constitution” and “Political Process.”

Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab politician, said Tuesday that Sunnis were still insisting on a different nominee and hoped to hear back from the main Shiite bloc in a few days.

MORE FROM CONFLICT IN IRAQ

Conflict in Iraq Section Front

Sandstorms, drought hobble once-fertile Iraq U.S. releases Iranian officials held in Iraq Bombing outside Iraqi church kills 4 Two separate bomb blasts kill 8 in Iraq Experts: Iraq invasion harmed Babylon Conflict in Iraq Section Front   Add Conflict in Iraq headlines to your news reader: