Seven people died in two blasts in Baghdad. Attackers planted a motorcycle bomb in Shorja market -- Baghdad's oldest -- killing four people and injuring 20, security officials said Thursday, according to AFP.
The blast ripped through the market on the east side of the Tigris river in central Baghdad at around 11:00 am.
Two bombs also went off in a major shopping street in the southwestern district of Al-Bayah, killing three people and injuring seven.
Meanwhile, American and Iraqi forces battled Sunni gunmen hiding in high-rise buildings on Haifa Street in the center of Baghdad Wednesday, with snipers on roofs taking aim at gunmen in open windows as Apache attack helicopters hovered overhead.
Iraq said 30 gunmen were killed and 27 captured.
At 5 a.m. Wednesday, Iraqi army and American troops moved into the Sunni stronghold to launch targeted raids in a third operation this month to clear the neighborhood of gunmen. Armored vehicles massed along Haifa Street.
The U.S.-Iraqi force faced fierce resistance from fighters using hand-grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms from the high-rises, the American military said. The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group, condemned the raid as part of "a campaign of genocide" against Sunnis and said several buildings had been damaged and people killed. According to the AP, it said it had not determined the exact number of casualties because the area was under siege.
The U.S. military said the combined force in the operation, dubbed Tomahawk Strike II, detained seven suspects and seized heavy weapons, including many rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank rounds and 155 mm artillery rounds. The Iraqi Defense Ministry said 30 "insurgents" were killed and 27 captured, including four Egyptians and a Sudanese.
