A suicide car bomb and another car packed with explosives targeted Iraqi police patrols Saturday on opposite sides of Baghdad, killing at least six people, police said. The suicide attacker rammed into a police patrol mid-afternoon in Nisoor Square on the capital's west side, killing a civilian and a policeman, police said. Another five people were wounded, the AP reported.
The other blast took place nearly simultaneously across town at a crowded bus stop where passengers were lining up to catch rides to eastern Shiite neighborhoods, though police said the target was the passing convoy of a top Iraqi police general. Four people were killed and 18 injured, Brig. Gen. Nazar Majeed among them, said an Iraqi officer. Three of the dead were policemen, he said.
Also Saturday, Iraqi police said they found five bodies in a mass grave south of Baghdad. The partly decomposed bodies were believed to be those of Iraqi soldiers, with military uniforms and boots, an officer said. An Iraqi military outpost is close to where the grave was found in the al-Wahda village about 23 miles south of the capital, the officer said.
Digging was expected to resume again Sunday, he said.
Meanwhile, Iraq's prime minister was in Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders. It is al-Maliki's second visit to Iran in a year. His visit comes amid controversy over a mooted deal with Washington on a long-term US troop presence in Iraq.
"The prime minister's visit to Iran is considered a step in a series of visits ... and to form a strategy committee to develop the relationship between the two nations," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP.
