Iraq Struck by Series of Suicide Car Bombings

VOA News
August 25, 2010 at 5:50 am

A string of car bombings across Iraq has killed at least 33 people in a day of violence that is testing Iraqi security forces as the United States ends combat operations.

Police say a suicide car bomber struck a police station in Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 40 others.

In the town of Kut in southern Iraq another suicide car bomber killed another 15 people.

Northeast of Baghdad, another three people were killed in a car bomb attack in the town of Muqdadiyah.

Another attack in the southern city of Basra wounded at least two people.

A recent rise of violence has coincided with the U.S. withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. Attacks have targeted Iraqi security forces.

President Barack Obama has set an August 31 deadline for the end of combat operations in the country.

The U.S. military announced Tuesday that there are now fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. They have shifted their mission to advising and training Iraqi security forces until the end of 2011, when all U.S. troops are to leave. Some information in this story was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.