Baghdad Market Blast Kills 17
A car bomb exploded near a busy market and cinema in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding 65, police said. Two car bombs also struck in the northern town of Kirkuk. Two Marines were reported killed in ongoing Operation Matador in western Iraq.
The explosion of the parked car in Baghdad also set fire to a nearby apartment and about 15 vehicles parked in the New Baghdad area of the capital, said police 1st Lt. Mazin Saeed.
The bomb killed at least 17 people and wounded 65, said police Lt. Col. Ahmed Aboud. He said the wounded included woman and children.
An enraged crowd of about 150 people turned their anger on police and journalists, beating at least two Iraqi photographers. Police and U.S. troops fired in the air to disperse the crowd, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.
In other developments:
Attacks by insurgents continued in other areas of Iraq, following a wave of bombs and gunfire that killed at least 69 people and wounded 160 Wednesday — pushing the death toll from insurgent violence to more than 400 in less than two weeks.
In the latest insurgent violence, Brig. Gen. Iyad Imad Mahdi was shot and killed as he drove to work at the Ministry of Defense. Col. Fadhil Muhammed Mobarak was shot and killed as he traveled to the Interior Ministry, where he led its police control room, police said.
Two car bombs also exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, police said. One blast occurred near a Shiite mosque, killing two people and wounding two, said police Capt. Sarhad Talabani.
The other exploded at a site where explosives experts were dismantling a roadside bomb that residents had found, said police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader. Two of the experts were wounded by the blast, which also destroyed nearby vehicles, Qader said.
The latest violence underscored how intense the fight for Iraq's future has become since the United States declared the end of major combat two years ago and since Iraqis voted in the country's first democratic elections in January.
Insurgents averaged about 70 attacks a day at the start of May, up from 30-40 in February and March, said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.
The two U.S. Marines were killed and 14 wounded when an explosive device hit their troop transport vehicle during a large American offensive being fought against suspected insurgents in western Iraq, the military said Thursday.
Residents in the villages of Karabilah and Saadah reported heavy bombardments by U.S. artillery or warplanes Thursday following what they believed was fighting in the area.
On Wednesday night, a U.S. Assault Amphibian Vehicle struck an explosive device outside the town of Husaybah, killing two Marines and wounding 14, American military spokesman Capt. Jeffrey Pool said Thursday.
Earlier in the offensive, which began late Saturday night, at least three Marines were reported killed and 20 wounded. It is one of the biggest U.S. military operations in Iraq since Fallujah was taken from militants six months ago.
As many as 100 insurgents were killed in the first 48 hours of the offensive when U.S. forces clashed with well-organized and well-equipped fighters in Obeidi, 200 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
Operation Matador was launched after U.S. intelligence showed insurgents had moved into the northern Jazirah Desert after losses in the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
Pool said Wednesday that the region is used as staging area for foreign fighters who cross into Iraq from Syria along ancient smuggling routes known as "rat lines."
"It is here that these foreign fighters receive the weapons and equipment to conduct attacks, such as suicide car bombs and assassination or kidnapping of political or civilian targets," Pool said in a statement.
The presence of foreign fighters has been confirmed by detainees captured during the operation, he said.