BAGHDAD – Roadside bombs killed eight American soldiers in separate attacks Sunday in Diyala province and Baghdad, raising the weekend toll of U.S. troops to 11.
Also Sunday, a car bomb claimed 30 more lives in a wholesale food market in a part of the Iraqi capital where sectarian tensions are on the rise.
The deadliest attack against U.S. forces occurred in Diyala, where six U.S. soldiers and a European journalist were killed when a massive bomb destroyed their vehicle, the U.S. military said. Two U.S. soldiers were wounded, the military said.
Two other American soldiers died Sunday in separate bombings in Baghdad. Another soldier died Sunday in a noncombat incident in northern Iraq.
The military also reported the deaths of two Marines in a blast Saturday in Anbar province.
Those deaths raised to at least 3,373 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In Baghdad, an American general warned of more casualties to come as the U.S. steps up its campaign to restore stability to Baghdad and surrounding areas.
“In the next 90 days we’re going to see increased American casualties because we’re taking the fight to the enemy,” Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. troops south of Baghdad, told reporters.
Lynch predicted that U.S. operations would produce a “decisive effect on enemy formations” by September, but the task of building stable Iraqi political institutions and security capabilities will take much longer.
At least 95 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide Sunday, police reported. They included 12 policemen in Samarra, among them the city’s police chief, who died when Sunni insurgents launched a suicide car bombing and other attacks on police headquarters.
The market bombing occurred about noon in the Baiyaa district of western Baghdad, shattering vehicles, ripping roofs off nearby buildings and collapsing storefronts. Police said about 80 people were injured in addition to the 30 dead.
Blood pooled on the dirt streets. Hospital officials said two pickup trucks filled with body parts were brought to the morgue.
“I was waiting near a shop to lift some boxes, when I saw the owner of the shop collapse,” said Sattar Hussein, 22, who works in the market. “I helped him inside the shop, but he was already dead. The next thing I felt was pain in my left shoulder and some people rushing me to the hospital.”
Ali Hamid, 25, who owns a shop in the market, said he was selling soft drinks when the blast knocked him unconscious.
“The next thing I remember is some people putting me in a pickup with two dead bodies and rushing me to the hospital,” he said. He called the attack “a terrorist act aimed at creating more sectarian tension and strife.”
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed allegations by Sunni politicians that Shiite militias have resumed their campaign to expel Sunnis from Baiyaa.
Most of the shops in the market were believed owned by Shiites.
That raised speculation that the bombing was carried out by Sunni hard-liners in reprisal for the alleged expulsions, which were believed to have slowed across the capital since the start of the Baghdad security crackdown Feb. 14.
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