Bombs in Baghdad kill at least 6 as Iraqi Sunnis celebrate end of Ramadan

BAGHDAD — A parked car bomb went off near a police patrol Friday afternoon in a central Baghdad shopping district, killing four people as Iraq's Sunnis began marking the Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said it was working with local Iraqi officials and tribal officials to investigate the killings of 15 civilians — six women and nine children — as well as 19 suspected insurgents Thursday in a U.S. ground and air assault targeting al-Qaida in Iraq northwest of Baghdad.

Streetside parking was banned in the capital during the three-day holiday, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to media.

Citing improved security, Baghdad authorities lifted a weekly four-hour driving ban that had coincided with Friday prayers and shortened the curfew in the capital. But Iraqis have faced a series of car bombings in recent days as al-Qaida in Iraq promised an offensive to coincide with the holy month.

Two policemen were among the four people killed and 15 other people were wounded in the blast in Baghdad, an official said, adding that several shops and two nearby cars also were damaged.

The police officer, who declined to be identified because he was not supposed to release the information, said the attacker had parked the explosives-laden car near clothing stores, pretended to go shopping during the busy start of the holiday, then fled.

In northern Iraq, a bomb planted among toys in a cart left near a children's playground in the religiously mixed city of Tuz Khormato, killed a civilian and wounded 17, including five children, one of whom later died in hospital, police Col. Abbas Mohammed said. The cart owner was arrested in his home in the town, about 130 miles north of Baghdad.

The U.S. military operation near the man-made Lake Tharthar, about 50 miles northwest of the capital, inflicted one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in the offensive against the terror network in recent months.

Nineteen insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, died in the raid, the military said.

The military statement said ground and air assault troops acted on intelligence reports about an al-Qaida meeting at an initial location, then pursued suspected insurgents to another area. Two suspected al-Qaida members, a woman and three children were also wounded.