Another deadly day in Iraq, 3 bomb blasts kill 15 people
5/24/2005 2:20:00 PM GMT

Three car bombs exploded in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing more than 15 people and wounding many others, the Iraqi police and the U.S. military said.

The first bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in the Alwiya area at about 1030 (0630 GMT), killing more than six people and wounding eight others, police said.

More than three cars and several buildings were also damaged in the explosion.

A police officer said that a bomb disposal team was approaching a suspicious car when the bomb exploded, adding that the parked car was detonated by a remote control.

"Two charred bodies that are difficult to identify were found at the scene of the attack," an interior ministry official said, adding that one of the wounded was a police officer.

The second bomb exploded near a junior high school for girls in Baghdad, killing six people, witnesses and police said.

Another car bomb hit a U.S. convoy in central Baghdad, killing three U.S. soldiers, the U.S. army said.

A military spokesman said that the bomb exploded at around 1:30 p.m. (0930 GMT). The victims were members of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division.

The spokesman also said that gunmen shot dead a U.S. soldier sitting in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle at an observation post.

The U.S. military also said Tuesday that four American soldiers were killed Monday after they were attacked in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad. The soldiers were assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

Tuesday’s attacks were the latest in a sharp upsurge of violence in war-torn Iraq that followed the creation of the new government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari in early May.

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