Baghdad area hit by series of bombs, 13 killed

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/22/us-iraq-attack-idUSTRE74L0TN20110522

(Reuters) - A string of explosions killed at least 13 people and wounded 74 in the Baghdad area on Sunday, including a suicide bombing targeting Iraqi soldiers north of the capital, security officials said.

Violence in Iraq has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian conflict four years ago, but bombings, assassinations and other attacks are carried out daily by a weakened Sunni Islamist insurgency and Shi'ite militias.

At least nine Iraqi troops were killed when a suicide bomber blew up his car among a group of soldiers investigating a car bomb near a checkpoint in Taji, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad, said the capital's security spokesman, Mayor-General Qassim al-Moussawi.

"Two vehicles exploded in Taji. The first was a parked car bomb. They were trying to defuse it, when another driver rammed into them and blew himself up," he said.