Baghdad Bus Station Blasts Kill 15, Wound 29
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bombs exploded at a bus station and a small market in Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 29 others Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.
A bomb hidden under a car exploded at a bus depot in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Mashtal on the capital's east side, killing 11 people, including two women. Twenty-one others were wounded in the attack, authorities said.
In the northern Shiite-dominated district of Qahira, four people were killed and eight others injured when a roadside bomb exploded near a market place, police said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Also Tuesday, one person died when a roadside bomb targeted the convoy in central Baghdad of a Shiite government official and former member of the Iraqi Governing Council.
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Ahmed Shiyaa al-Barak, who currently serves as the head of a government real estate commission, escaped the attack without injury. Five of his guards and four bystanders were injured in the bombing, police said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gunmen also shot dead a policeman in eastern Baghdad.
U.S. officials say attacks in the Iraqi capital are averaging about four a day — down nearly 90 percent from levels of late 2006, when Shiite-Sunni fighting was at its high point and just before the U.S. troop surge that helped bring down violence in the capital.
But Tuesday's blasts — coming a day after a string of bombings killed 10 people — mark an increase in bloodshed in Baghdad and underscore that extremists remain a threat.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the northern city of Mosul, a homicide bomber rammed his car into a passing police patrol, injuring four officers, police said.
Two other attacks took place Tuesday in Mosul, which has also experienced a spike in violence in recent months. A roadside bomb struck an army patrol, injuring an officer, and a gunman opened fire on a policeman, wounding him.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military said one civilian died on the scene of a road accident with coalition troops near the city of Tikrit, 80 miles north of the capital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A second Iraqi died after being rushed to an aid station.
Iraqi police said an American Humvee ran over four Iraqis while they were trying to hang a banner in the middle of a road, killing two and wounding two others.
The Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they was not authorized to release information to the media.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Violence has dropped in Iraq since the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces have gained the upper hand against insurgents, but scattered attacks still occur almost daily.