BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A string of bombs killed 35 children and wounded scores of others as U.S. troops handed out candy Thursday at a government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a sewage plant. It was the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the start of the Iraq conflict.\nGrief-stricken mothers wailed over their children's bloodied corpses, as relatives collected body parts from the street for burial and a boy picked up the damaged bicycle of his dead brother.\nThe wounded were rushed to Yarmouk Hospital, where angry relatives screamed for attention from the overwhelmed doctors, many of whom wore uniforms covered in blood. One woman tore at her hair before pulling back the sheet covering her dead brother and kissing his body.\nThe bombings in Baghdad's western al-Amel neighborhood -- at least two of which were in cars -- came amid a series of savage attacks that killed at least 51 people and wounded 230 nationwide. At least one U.S. soldier was among the dead and 13 were wounded.\nJordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for bloody attacks in Baghdad on Thursday, according to a statement posted on a militant Web site.\nThe authenticity of the statement could not be verified, and it was unclear whether the three "heroic operations" it cites -- attacks on a government complex and "a convoy of invading forces" -- included the bombs that killed the children.\nEarly reports said a U.S. convoy was passing by the celebration when the attack occurred. The U.S. military said later that American soldiers were taking part in the celebration but that no convoy was passing through the area.\nAmerican jets, tanks and artillery units have repeatedly targeted al-Zarqawi's followers in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, as coalition forces seek to assert control over insurgent enclaves ahead of elections slated for January.\nDeputy Interior Minister Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal said intense military pressure on insurgents holed up in Fallujah was forcing insurgents to turn their bombs on the capital. He said the day's attacks were "definitely coordinated."\n"They are killing citizens and spreading horror. They have no aims except killing as many Iraqis as they can," Kamal told The Associated Press.\nSome of the children, who are near the end of a nationwide school vacation, said they were attracted to the neighborhood celebration by American soldiers handing out candy.\n"The Americans called us. They told us: 'Come here, come here,' asking us if we wanted sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded," said 12-year-old Abdel Rahman Dawoud, lying naked in a hospital bed with shrapnel embedded all over his body.\nInterior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said a car bomb and an explosive device planted in the road detonated in quick succession at the site of the celebration. Soon afterward, a second car bomb plowed into the area as crowds rushed to help the wounded, he said.\nMaj. Phil Smith, spokesman for the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, said all three blasts were caused by car bombs, the first two targeting the celebration and the third aimed at an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint about a mile away. Ten U.S. soldiers were wounded, he said.\nNeither official would confirm whether suicide attackers were involved, and the conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled.\n"This attack was carried out by evil people who do not want the Iraqis to celebrate and don't want (reconstruction) projects in Iraq," National Guard Lt. Ahmad Saad said at the scene.\nYarmouk Hospital received 42 bodies, including 35 children, said Dr. Azhar Zeid. The hospital also treated 131 wounded, 72 of them under age 14, added Dr. Mohammed Salaheddin.
Associated Press Writers Sameer N. Yacoub and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report
