18 killed, 36 wounded in Iraq suicide car bombings

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Two car bombs exploded near the interior minister's offices Thursday, killing 18 people and wounding three dozen. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blasts, which caused the biggest death toll from an explosion in more than a month.\nIn a statement posted on the Internet, al-Qaida in Iraq, headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said the bombings were targeting police who were guarding the offices of Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib, who is in charge of the nation's police. The claim couldn't be independently verified.\nAl-Naqib was in his office at the time of the attack, but he left to examine the damage and said he was fine. The explosions didn't damage the building.\nThe blasts sent large plumes of smoke rising over the city and threw passers-by to the ground. Ice cream vendor Ali Ahmed, 28, said he heard an explosion, followed by gunfire and another explosion.\n"My stall was partially destroyed because of this terrorist act," he said. "Some people have lost their lives. As for me, I have now lost my source of income."\nThe blasts blew out the windows of nearby restaurants in the upscale neighborhood of Baghdad, near the heavily fortified Green Zone. Panicked students from a nearby secondary school wept and shouted that they weren't going to attend classes anymore, waiting in the street for school buses or relatives to pick them up.\nAfter clearing the area, U.S. forces set off a third car that apparently failed to explode earlier, police said. No one was injured in the last blast.\nInterior Ministry official Capt. Ahmed Ismael said the first two blasts killed 18 and wounded 36. One government worker said five garbage collectors he was supervising were among the dead.\nThursday's death toll was the largest since a car bomb killed 47 people on March 10.\nInsurgents kept up attacks Thursday against Iraq's security forces, which the U.S. military says must be able to impose a level of calm in the country before American troops can depart.\nGunmen hit police patrolling near the central Iraqi city of Baqouba, killing one officer and wounding three others, Lt. Col. Muthafar al-Jubori said.\nIn the capital, attackers shot and killed 1st Lt. Firas Hussein as he made his way to work at Iraq's intelligence service, police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim said.\nIn Kirkuk, seven gunmen riding in two vehicles fired on the police station just south of Kirkuk shortly after dawn, killing five police officers and one civilian, police Brig. Sarhat Qadir said.\nMilitant group Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in an Internet posting that its "knights of Islam" attacked "renegade policemen doing their morning training." The claim couldn't be independently verified.\nAnsar al-Sunnah also said it had teamed up with al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaida in Iraq for an attack earlier this week in Kirkuk.\nThe Web posting said the Wednesday explosive device that killed 12 police was composed of three bombs buried under a decoy device.\nIn Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown 80 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a U.S. military installation, injuring nine civilians and setting nearby houses ablaze, police Lt. Col. Amer Ahmed said.\nThe U.S. military said one American soldier and two Iraqi troops were injured.