17 Iraqis, two GIs killed in day of violence

BAGHDAD - At least 17 Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday in a wave of explosions, mostly in Baghdad, including a suicide bombing against police, security sources and the U.S. military said.

The bloodshed highlighted the tenuous situation around Baghdad, where attacks and assassinations still occur almost daily. It also drew attention to the continuing efforts to kill American troops by Sunni Arab and Shiite militants ahead of the scheduled departure of American forces at the end of the year. There has been an increase in the shelling around U.S. military bases inside Baghdad's airport grounds as well as the U.S. Embassy compound in the fortified Green Zone enclave.

The U.S. military declined to provide details on the attack that killed the two soldiers in central Iraq, which includes the Baghdad area.

Yesterday morning, a car bomb targeted a U.S. military convoy near Taji, the site of a major military installation just north of Baghdad, but it caused no damage to the American vehicles, according to an Iraqi security official. When police gathered at the car bombing site, a suicide bomber approached and blew himself up, killing 10 police and wounding another 16 people, the official said.

The blast was the third major bombing against police this month.

The wave of explosions included a series of blasts during Baghdad's morning rush hour, with six people killed, security officials said. A car bomb in the western neighborhood of Amil killed a policeman on patrol and wounded three of his colleagues. Four civilians were killed and 15 wounded in four roadside explosions in the western Shiite neighborhood of Bayaa. A car bombing injured nine people in the eastern district of Sadr City, and a roadside bomb nearby killed a civilian.

The motorcade of a brigadier general with the Interior Ministry was hit by a bomb, killing one civilian and wounding three others. A second attack on the U.S. military was reported last night, with a security official saying a roadside bomb had struck a Humvee outside the neighborhood of Amiriya in west Baghdad.