At least 16 people were killed and 90 wounded in two car bomb attacks in Baghdad’s Al-Amin neighborhood. Police said the first bomb exploded near a gas station and the second took place in a market. Both explosions occurred after 1700 local time (1400 GMT).
"Most of the casualties were from the blast in the market," an Interior Ministry official said.
Medics said the death toll from the attacks could rise.
Earlier, the U.S. army said that five soldiers had been killed yesterday in separate attacks. Three died when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad. The fourth and the fifth were killed by small-arms fire, one in southwestern Baghdad, and the other in the central city Fallujah.
The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since the 2003 INVASION to 2,247, according to Pentagon figures.
Also Thursday, a U.S. missile strike in the mainly Shia Sadr City area killed more than 4 IRAQIS and wounded several others, including women and children, BBC reported.
Among the dead was a 20-year-old woman, identified as Ikhlas Abd al-Hussein. Her father said she was killed when a U.S. helicopter fired a missile at her hours, blasting a hole through the roof. The father said the air strike also wounded another woman and a two-year-old child.
A U.S. spokesman confirmed that four people were killed in the air strike, but claimed that U.S. forces targeted the area after coming under attack during a nighttime raid.
Iraqi Transport Minister Salam al-Maliki, a representative of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, denounced the attack and demanded compensation for the victims.
"These military operations aim at weakening the supporters of the Sadrist movement, are considered provocative and represent a clear violation against the security situation in the country," he told the Associated Press news agency.
In other violence;
- Iraqi police found fourteen bodies, blindfolded with their hands tied, in a ditch near Sadr City. All had been shot in the head.
- Gunmen killed three policemen and wounded ten in separate attacks in Mosul, police said.
- Two people were killed and seven wounded when a group of armed men opened fire on a commuter minibus south of Baghdad.
- Rebels attacked an oil processing facility west of the northern city of Kirkuk, triggering a massive fire.
- The U.S. army said two Iraqi children died in the town of Hit during a gun battle between Iraqi security forces and rebels on Wednesday.
Saddam trial delayed
The trial of SADDAM HUSSEIN has been delayed until February 13 after it resumed briefly with none of the eight defendants in court, BBC reported.
The three defendants who had been present at yesterday's session didn’t attend today’s proceedings. The rest are boycotting the court, as well as the defense team, accusing the Kurdish chief judge of bias and calling for his removal.
Chief Raouf Abdul Rahman didn’t ask SADDAM HUSSEIN and his protesting co-defendants to attend court on Thursday, and barred the others for what he called “disorderly behavior” outside the courtroom.
The trial was adjourned after hearing evidence from two witnesses.
SADDAM and seven members of his former regime are standing trial over the 1982 Dujail massacre in which 148 people were killed. All the defendants deny the charges. If convicted they could face the death penalty.