Bombings in Baghdad on Thursday killed at least 35 people and injured dozens, while another 11 bodies were found throughout Iraq.
In the biggest attack, at least 25 people died when a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside the headquarters of the Iraqi police's major crimes unit in Baghdad's central Karradah district. More than 35 people wounded, police said.
According to Reuters, the ministry said the car bomber had stopped at the first checkpoint and was having his vehicle checked for explosives when he activated the bomb.
A second car bomb hit a market area outside a Shiite mosque in the neighborhood of Shurta in southwest Baghdad. At least six people were killed and more than 20 wounded, police said.
Other roadside bombs targeting police patrols went off in Baghdad and nearby Iskandariyah on Thursday, killed at least five people and injured a dozen others, police said. The explosion in Baghdad's mostly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah killed two policemen and two bystanders, police Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said.
At least seven people - two policemen and five civilians - were wounded, he added.
In Iskandariyah, some 30 miles south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one policemen and injured two pedestrians, police stated.
Also in Baghdad, another civilian was seriously wounded by an Iraqi army patrol that was shooting in the air to clear traffic in the western neighborhood of Yarmouk, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq said.
Meanwhile, three western aid workers held hostage in Iraq were released, US Colonel, John Snow told AFP. The two Canadians and a Briton from the Christian Peacemaker Teams, who were abducted in November, were found west of Baghdad, he said.
The three were abducted in Baghdad with US colleague Tom Fox, who was executed by his kidnappers earlier this month.
The three were rescued in a joint U.S.-British operation northeast of Baghdad, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
