A suicide truck bomber on Monday rammed into the provincial headquarters of a commando force north of Baghdad, killing at least nine troops and wounding 10 civilians, police said.
Earlier, Iraqi and U.S. forces raided a Shiite stronghold of Baghdad Monday, triggering a gunbattle that left three people dead.
Elsewhere, gunmen traveling in two cars sprayed a barbershop in Baghdad with gunfire, killing five people, while two policemen died in the northern city of Mosul in a similar drive-by shooting, police said.
According to the AP, a roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad killed three American troops late Sunday, the U.S. military said. Ten people died in a suicide bombing at a funeral in Saddam Hussein's hometown.
In Baghdad, aides to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said U.S. aircraft were attacking buildings in the area. "Several aerial and ground raids began in central Sadr City," al-Sadr aide Jaleel al-Nouri said by telephone as detonations could be heard in the background. "We can see several houses on fire."
The U.S. military said in a statement the fighting started when Iraqi and U.S. forces raided the area to capture "extremists" suspected of running torture cells. The forces took fire as soon as they arrived and one U.S. soldier was injured, statement said.
In other violence Monday, two bombs went off on Palestine Street, a major shopping area of Baghdad, injuring 10 people, including a senior police officer. Two bodies, handcuffed and shot in the head, were also found in western Baghdad, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein.
