127 killed in Baghdad bombings

Baghdad: Two explosions rocked Baghdad at midday Wednesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 18, police said.

In one of the attacks, a parked car exploded near a private hospital in the central neighborhood of Karradah, killing five people and wounding 12, police said. The blast damaged the Abdul-Majid hospital and other nearby buildings.

The second explosion was from a bomb left on a minibus in the northwestern Risafi area, killing four people and wounding six others, police said.

Meanwhile, US troops killed five suspects and captured 30 others in a raid in Iraq's western Anbar province, a day after police uncovered 17 decomposing corpses beneath two school yards in the provincial capital.

The US military also announced a discovery made nearly a week earlier - 3,000 gallons of nitric acid hidden in a warehouse in downtown Baghdad. US forces found the acid, a key component in fertilizer but also in explosives, during a routine search operation last Thursday, the military said.

Violence continued to rage Wednesday, with mortar attacks and roadside bombings across the country.

Two brothers were killed and a policeman was hurt in a gun battle in downtown Baqouba, 60 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, police said. The dead were believed to be civilians, caught in the crossfire as police fought unidentified gunmen.

Farther north, 32 mortar shells rained down on Iraqi army checkpoints in two neighborhoods of Mosul, 360 kilometers northwest of the capital, police said. Six soldiers, a policeman and a pedestrian were injured.

American forces raided a group of buildings suspected of
being used by militants, and found explosives inside one of
them, the military said in a statement. A helicopter was
called in, and dropped precision-guided bombs on the
cluster of buildings, it said.