At least 18 Iraqis were killed in two suicide car bombing attacks near an Interior Ministry building in central Baghdad Thursday, an official at the Interior Ministry said. According to Reuters, he added the blasts targeted a fortified part of the Interior Ministry and said he projected the death toll to increase. More than 36 people were injured.
In a separate attack earlier, gunmen attacked a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing five policemen. A mortar round hit the station afterward.
Also on Thursday, attackers targeted a U.S. military installation in Tikrit with a car bomb that wounded at least five civilians, hospital and U.S. officials said.
On Wednesday, an American man was shown at gunpoint on a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera television, two days after he was kidnapped from a water treatment plant near Baghdad. The station said he pleaded for his life and urged U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq.
The Al-Jazeera tape showed a man sitting behind a desk with at least three assailants - two hooded and one off-camera - pointing assault rifles at him.
The United States said it would maintain its policy of not negotiating with kidnappers. The U.S. Embassy said the man on the video appeared to be Ake, a contract worker who was kidnapped around noon Monday.
