Two bombs explode in Baghdad: two bodies found

Two roadside bombs, one targeting a U.S. military convoy and the other an Iraqi police patrol, exploded in Baghdad on Tuesday, wounding three Iraqis, officials said.

Photo: Two bombs explode in Baghdad: two bodies found

In Mosul, a mostly Sunni city 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, a roadside bomb seriously wounded an Iraqi policeman, and a drive-by shooting killed a Kurdish civilian, Ahmed Khalil, as he was leaving his home, said police Maj. Gen. Wathiq Mohammed.

In Haqlaniyah, a village 220 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb exploded near a foot patrol of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, said Younis Al-Azawi, the director of a school near the site of the blast. He said three American soldiers were wounded and evacuated from the scene, but the U.S. military could not immediately confirm that.

Al-Azawi said the explosion occurred about 7:30 a.m. as a soldiers were finishing an operation during which they had raided homes in the village and detained three Iraqis. Iraqi and U.S. soldiers sealed off the area, witnesses said.

In Baghdad, police also found the bodies of two Iraqi men who apparently had been tortured and killed in captivity.

Sunni Arabs say Shiite militias have infiltrated the Interior Ministry, controlled by the biggest Shiite party, and used death squads to kill Sunnis. Sectarian violence has flared since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

The latest deaths brought to more than 70 the number of Iraqis reported killed in insurgency or sectarian-related violence since Jawad al-Maliki was formally tapped Saturday to head a national unity government. The United States believes a unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds is essential to halting the country's slide to chaos, reports the AP.

I.L.