Car Bombs Blast Baghdad

Three car bombs rocked northern Baghdad neighborhoods Sunday morning within a span half an hour while another struck a Shiite holy city, leaving at least 17 dead and 44 wounded, police and provincial officials said.

The explosions in Baghdad came as a car bomb went off in the Karbala, home to one of the two holiest Shiite shrines, leaving 5 dead and 18 wounded near the province's government building, said Hassanein al-Zubeidi, the governor's aide said.

The attack occurred at around 9:30 a.m., as workers were returning to their offices after the weekend, said al-Zubeidi.

The worst strike in Baghdad - a suicide car bombing - occurred at 9:20 a.m. targeting an Iraqi army patrol in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah, killing 10 and wounding 15, most of them Iraqi soldiers, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

The first car bomb in Baghdad went off at 8:50 a.m. targeting a police patrol. It missed the target, but left one civilian dead and wounded five others, police Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said.

At 9 a.m., another car bomb went off near a college in northern Baghdad, targeting a police patrol, killing one civilian and wounding six others.

The explosion in Karbala occurred close to the province's main government building and the central bus station.

Police said smoke could be seen rising from the site of the explosion and cars in the area were burning, as authorities fired wildly in the air.

Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, has been struck before by insurgents. In February, a car bombing in Karbala left at least five dead and more than 30 wounded.