Baghdad: A bomb exploded inside a minibus in central Baghdad on Monday morning, killing two people and wounding eight others, police said.
According to police, the attack took place in the Karrada district around 08:30 hrs (12:30 am ET)
About 30 minutes later, six people were killed, including three Iraqi police officers, and 40 others were wounded, 10 of the them police, when a pair of roadside bombs exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in the Zafaraniya district of southeastern Baghdad, police said.
Earlier in the morning, a car bomb exploded along a street in Mahmoudiya, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding four more, police said.
Around midday, a suicide car bomber attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint north of Ramadi, wounding at least four people.
Ramadi is located about 60 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province.
Amid a new security crackdown in Baghdad, car bombs on Sunday struck in two Shiite neighborhoods, targeting civilians and police, Iraqi officials said.
At least 62 people were reported killed, most of them civilians killed in a twin car bomb attack.
The two car bombs detonated in quick succession near marketplaces and bus stops in the southeastern district of Baghdad known as al-Jadida, or "New Baghdad," killing 60 people and wounding at least 131 others, Baghdad police said.
The attack happened around 1500 hrs local time (7 am ET) along the main commercial street that runs through the mostly Shiite district.
About an hour later, a car bomb detonated near an Iraqi National Police checkpoint in Sadr City, killing two -- a civilian and an Iraqi soldier -- and wounding 11 civilians, an Interior Ministry official said.
Sadr City is a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The attacks come as Iraqi forces, supported by US troops, continue their effort to secure Baghdad from insurgent attacks.
Some 112,000 coalition and Iraqi security forces are devoted to the Baghdad security crackdown, dubbed "Fardh Al-Qanoon," or "Enforcing the Law."
In the past couple of days, Iraqi and US troops have started creating pedestrian-only zones around Baghdad's marketplaces, which are vulnerable to attacks from car bombers targeting civilians, a US Army commander said Friday.
"We'll therefore be denying these car bombs the ability to direct themselves as precision weapons where people are the most vulnerable," said Major General Joseph F Fil Jr, commanding general of Multi-National Division Baghdad and the 1st Cavalry Division.
"We also do believe they are watching us carefully" to determine their next moves, Fil said.
Seven detained near Tikrit
Coalition forces detained seven suspected terrorists and destroyed a vehicle rigged with explosives during a raid east of Tikrit Monday morning, a US military statement said.
The raid was launched after intelligence reports "indicated a suspected terrorist with ties to the foreign fighter facilitator network was working the targeted area," the statement said.
In apprehending the targeted individual, coalition forces also detained six other suspected terrorists.
The forces also discovered a vehicle bomb on the property and destroyed it, the military said.
Tikrit is located about 80 miles north of Baghdad. US soldiers detained 49 suspected terrorists during raids Friday and Saturday in Quarghuli Village, southwest of Baghdad, another US military statement said.
Dubbed "Operation Polar Iron," the two-day operation consisted of air and ground assaults on "anti-Iraqi forces believed to be operating in and around Quarghuli Village."
According to the military, the area has been "long known as a terrorist safe haven."
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