A suicide bomber detonated his car in a crowd of Shiite mourners north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 36 people and raising the death toll in two days of attacks against Shiites to more than 120. Five US soldiers died in roadside bombings.
In the north, US and Iraqi forces raided a suspected al-Qaeda hideout on Saturday in Mosul and at least seven insurgents died -- three committing suicide to avoid capture, Iraqi authorities said. Four Iraqi policemen also were killed and 11 US troops wounded, Iraqi and US officials said.
The suicide car bomb exploded late on Saturday afternoon as mourners offered condolences to Raad Majid, head of the municipal council in Abu Saida, over the death of his uncle. Abu Saida is near Baqouba, a religiously mixed city 56km northeast of Baghdad.
PHOTO: AP
Police said about 50 people were injured. On Oct. 29, a bomb hidden in a truck loaded with dates exploded in another Shiite community in the same area, killing 30 people.
Ambulances streamed into the main hospital in Baqouba ferrying the wounded from Saturday's blast; many were rushed directly into operating rooms where doctors worked frantically to save them.
Hospital facilities were so crowded that dazed and bloodied survivors -- many with serious injuries -- lay in agony on gurneys in the hallways because of the surgery backlog.
Earlier on Saturday, a car bomb exploded in a crowd of shoppers at an outdoor market in a mostly Shiite neighborhood on the southeast edge of Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding about 20 others, police reported.
Witnesses said they saw a man park the car and walk away shortly before the blast.
The five American soldiers -- assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division -- died in a pair of roadside bombings near Beiji, 249km north of Baghdad, the US command said. Five others from the same unit were wounded.
In Mosul, 362km northwest of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said police and US soldiers surrounded a house before dawn on Saturday after reports that al-Qaeda in Iraq members were inside, said Brig. Said Ahmed al-Jubouri, a Mosul police spokesman.
As a fierce gunbattle broke out, three insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves to avoid capture. Five more died fighting, while four police officers also were killed.
In Baghdad, the US command confirmed the fire fight and said 11 US soldiers, nine Iraqi army troops and one policeman were wounded. The US statement put the insurgent death toll at seven.
Since Friday, at least 125 Iraqi civilians have been killed in bombings and suicide attacks.
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