Suicide bombers killed at least 22 people, including three US soldiers, in the Iraqi capital and the northern city of Kirkuk today.
The soldiers died when a suicide bomber struck at a crowded market in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, making it one of the deadliest incidents in months for US troops as they curtail activities ahead of a withdrawal deadline in 2012.
An eyewitness said US soldiers and Sunni Arab militiamen, part of a US-backed Iraqi government program to combat al Qaeda, were around the market's entrance when a man walked into the crowd and blew himself up.
"There was chaos," the witness said, asking to go unnamed. "Some people ran; others fell to the floor in fright."
Twelve civilians were killed and 25 others wounded, police said. The soldiers' deaths were confirmed by the US military.
A sheet covered a body lying on the street and empty bandage packets littered a shop floor streaked with blood. A nearby hospital was packed with blast victims, including an elderly woman and young men, some crying in agony.
A recent rash of major attacks has raised doubts about whether Iraq can avoid sliding back into greater violence as the local military assumes greater security responsibility and U.S. troops curtail their activities and look towards withdrawal.
In Kirkuk, police said they thought a bomber dressed in a security forces uniform had mingled with militiamen, part of the same Sunni Arab movement known as the Awakening, as they approached an army building to be paid.
The bomber triggered a vest packed with explosives, killing seven people and wounding eight others, police said.
Cars nearby were damaged by the blast, their cracked windshields spattered with blood. Shoes littered the area. The blasts come less than 24 hours after a car bomb killed 40 civilians and wounded 82 others in Baghdad's poor, mostly Shi'ite, district of Shula late yesterday, police said.
The United Nations' Mission to Iraq condemned the two days of bombings. UN representative Staffan de Mistura called them "reprehensible crimes that ... indiscriminately targeted ordinary Iraqis" and, in a statement, he offered condolences to the bereaved families.
Reuters