Thirteen people died and eight injured in a car bomb attack on a market located in a Shiite-dominated Baghdad neighbhourhood, an interior ministry official said. The explosion occured at 7:45 pm (local time) Thursday.
Earlier, gunmen on Thursday fired rockets and mortar rounds at a U.S. military base near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, local police in Fallujah said they found five bodies in a desert area south of the city.
Elsewhere, at least 26 people died and 70 wounded in a car bombing near a Shiite mosque. The bomb exploded in a busy market street as worshippers were leaving the mosque in the town of Howaider, near Baquba, 60 kilometers (36 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
An interior ministry official said the latest toll was 26 dead and 70 injured, adding that some of the injured were taken to a US military base near Baquba.
In another development, No. 2 in al-Qaeda network Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri praised resistance in Iraq, mainly Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and urged all Muslims to support them in a video posted Thursday on the Internet.
