Saturday, July 16 2005 14:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Twelve suicide bombers blew themselves up in separate attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq Yesterday (July 15, 2005), killing at least 28 people and wounding more than 100, including seven US soldiers, Iraqi and US forces said.

The bombers, who struck over several hours, targetted Iraqi security forces and US soldiers.

This was the worst day in terms of the number of such attacks since April 29, the day after parliament voted in new Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, when suicide bombers killed at least 23 and wounded scores more in the greater Baghdad area.

The attacks involved seven cars and one motorbike in the capital, while another suicide bomber blew up a car and a second motorbike in the northern town of Al-Sharqat.

In Baghdad, the bombings started shortly after 9:00 am (1030 IST, July 15, 2005) when two US soldiers were injured after a suicide car bomber drove at their Humvee military vehicle in the southeast of the capital, US forces said.

Around midday, at least eight people were killed and 15 wounded when a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army checkpoint in Ash-Shab, in the north of the capital, according to the defence ministry. Most victims were soldiers.

Another car bomber wounded five Iraqi soldiers and one civilian in an attack on a convoy near Andalus Square in the city centre, the interior ministry said.

Shortly thereafter, another bomber attempted to ram a pickup truck through the main gate of an army camp in Bab al-Moadham, the former defence ministry. The blast killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded 14, mostly soldiers, the defence ministry said. A US soldier was also wounded.

A US convoy was targeted in Al-Amanah, in the southeast of the capital, by yet another suicide bomber who wounded three civilians, police said. There was no word on any US casualties.

Later in the afternoon, five Iraqi soldiers were killed and 41 injured by a motorcycle bomb in the southwestern district of Al-Bayaa.

One Iraqi was killed and nine people injured, including four US soldiers, by another suicide car bomber in the western district of Amariyah, according to local firemen and US First Lieutenant Shawn Joyce.

And a bomber killed two soldiers and wounded two more people in Balad, 70 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Another bomber blew up a car later in the day in the southern part of the capital killing two members of a Kurdish militia and wounding eight others at a checkpoint leading to the home of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, the interior ministry said.

US losses since the 2003 invasion, meanwhile, climbed to 1,753 after the US military reported the deaths of two marines killed by a bomb yesterday near the border with Jordan, according to an AFP toll based on Pentagon figures.

Two Iraqi soldiers also died and a third was wounded when a man carrying a bomb on a motorbike crashed into a checkpoint in the town of Al-Sharqat, in the north of the country, police said.

The attacks went on well into the night, with two men blowing themselves up before their car managed to reach a police post they targeted in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad.

And six people were killed and 17 wounded in a suicide attack on an army roadblock in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, police said.