A car bomb went off outside a police academy in northern Iraq on Sunday, and when police set up a checkpoint to close off the area, a second car bomb exploded nearby, authorities said. According to The AP, at least six Iraqis were killed and 25 injured, a hospital official said.
The coordinated attack in Tikrit took place just as new police recruits were about to leave the academy and travel to Amman, Jordan, for a training program, said police Lt. Shalan Allawi.
In Baghdad, two blasts killed 15 people and injured 40. The first exploded in front of an ice cream shop in the western al-Shoulah district, police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim said. As people rushed to assist the wounded, a second bomb detonated within a few minutes, he said.
South of Baghdad, three fighters were killed Sunday as the roadside bomb they were trying to plant in the town of Mahawil detonated, police said in the nearby city of Hillah.
Also in the Iraqi capital area, resistance attacked several U.S. military convoys Sunday. In one attack, a roadside bomb hit a convoy in the east, killing one American soldier and wounding two, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said two Iraqi civilians also were wounded in the attack.
In addition, the US military announced another casualty from a day earlier - an American sailor who died Saturday when the Marine convoy he was traveling with was attacked by a roadside bomb in Fallujah.
The explosions were the latest in a series of stepped up attacks. On Saturday, at least 16 people died, including a US soldier.
In one incident, Associated Press Television News cameraman Saleh Ibrahim was shot and killed when gunfire broke out after an explosion in the northern city of Mosul.
