BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Suicide car bombs and explosions rocked wide areas of the Iraqi capital Friday, targeting U.S. and Iraqi security forces and killing at least 30 people. Two U.S. Marines died in a blast near the Jordanian border.

At least 111 people, including seven American soldiers, were wounded in the bombings – at least seven of them suicide attacks. One of the suicide bombings occurred after sundown on a bridge over the Tigris River near the home of President Jalal Talabani.

Four security guards were killed and nine people were wounded in that attack. Talabani was at home at the time, aides said, but the target may have been a U.S. convoy.

The wave of attacks, which began at midmorning and persisted after nightfall, marked an escalation in car bombings in Baghdad after a six-week U.S.-Iraqi military offensive sharply reduced their numbers since May.

They took place one day after a suicide attack on the Green Zone in which one would-be bomber was captured. A suicide blast near a U.S. convoy on Wednesday killed 27 people, including 18 children and one American soldier.

“The terrorists continue to strike at the most innocent,” U.S. Col. Joseph DiSalvo said of the civilian casualties. “There is no place in a civilized society for these murderers.”

In the deadliest attack Friday, a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army base in the Shaab neighborhood of Baghdad, killing eight Iraqis, including civilians and security personnel, and wounding 20, Maj. Khazim al-Tamimi said.

Another suicide car bomb Friday evening in western Baghdad targeted a police commando patrol, killing six policemen and wounding 45 people, including 38 civilians, police Capt. Taleb Thamer said.

Two Iraqi soldiers died and seven people were wounded when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb near an Iraqi patrol in Andalus Square in central Baghdad, Col. Salman Abdul Karim said.

The two U.S. Marines died Thursday in a roadside bombing during combat operations near the border with Jordan, the U.S. military said in a statement Friday.

At least 1,763 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,357 died as a result of hostile action. The figures include five military civilians.

The explosions occurred on the Muslim day of prayer, ordinarily a relatively quiet period in the capital.

During a Friday sermon at a mosque, a prominent Sunni cleric condemned the violence, especially the Wednesday suicide bombing that killed the 18 children.

Sheik Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, a moderate member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, called the attack Wednesday a “crime” but added that the Americans and their international partners share some of the blame.

“The (U.S.-led) occupation that has destroyed the country and turned things upside down is responsible for that,” al-Samarrai said.

Meanwhile, a U.S. commander said the level of violence in his sector, which includes the key cities of Tikrit, Kirkuk and Samarra, remains about where it was prior to the January election – a sign of the insurgency’s resilience.

“The suicide bomb, of course, is the weapon of choice now,” Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Taluto, commander of the 42nd Infantry Division, told reporters at the Pentagon via an audio link from Baghdad.

He said the number of attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces by roadside bombs, mortars and small arms has declined substantially. But the number of suicide bomb attacks grew from a monthly average of five to eight prior to the January elections to 15 in May and June, Taluto said. He blamed religious extremists for the increase.

Taluto said U.S. forces in his area were making progress in giving more responsibility to Iraqi forces, but he would not say how soon the Iraqis would be ready to assume full control. The transfer of security responsibility is key to withdrawing American forces from Iraq.

Also Friday, the bodies of five men – handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head – were discovered by a farmer on the outskirts of Baghdad. Police Lt. Col. Sabah Hamid said the bodies had no identity papers. Two days ago, the bodies of 10 men were found in the same area.

It was not clear if the dead were Sunnis or Shiites. Sectarian tensions are on the rise and each group has accused the other of assassinations.


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