At least nine people were killed and 17 injured in two suicide car-bombings in Baghdad early on Monday, an interior ministry official was quoted as saying by news agencies.
The first bombing, at 06:15, targeted the al-Sadeer Hotel in central Baghdad, which is used by foreign security personnel. Most of the six dead and 10 wounded were hotel security guards as the bomber rammed the car into the gates of the hotel.
At 08:30, another car bomb targeted a police commando patrol under the Harithiyah bridge in the west of the city, killing three policemen and injuringseven, the interior ministry official said.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Sunday's truck bombing attack on a Baghdad police center climbed to 39. Police officials said initially that at least 22 people were killed and about 30 were injured. On Monday, the death toll rose to 39 after many of the victims burned in the bombing died overnight, said Capt. Mahir Abdul Satar.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed the leader of the city council in Samarra, some 100 kms north of Baghdad, police said.
A Marine was killed Saturday when a roadside bomb went off near the desert town of Rutbah, west of Baghdad. On Sunday, another U.S. soldier died and two were injured in a mortar attack near Balad north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The soldiers were assigned to Task Force Liberty.
