Spate of attacks rock Baghdad (2nd Lead)

Aug 3, 2008, 11:37 GMT

Baghdad - A spate of blasts rocked the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 38, police said.

In the predominantly Sunni district of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad, at least 12 people were killed and 23 injured, most of them seriously, police said, when a vehicle parked on a commercial street exploded near the passport office on Maghreb street.

In central Baghdad, at least nine people were injured, three of them policemen, when a bomb went off near the city's main Kindi hospital, police sources told the Voices of Iraq VOI news agency.

Shortly after that blast, another bomb went off near the Ghadir bridge in the city centre, injuring two people, the sources told VOI, while in south-west Baghdad, four people were injured when a bomb went off targeting a police patrol on Baya bridge, security sources told the news agency.

The relative calm in Baghdad has been frequently shattered by deadly attacks. In the last major bout of violence, three female suicide bombers targeted Shiite pilgrims during a religious event nearly a week ago. At least 35 people died in the blasts.

Separately, the US military in Iraq said Sunday that one of its soldiers died in a road accident north of Baghdad - the first troop fatality in August - while two other soldiers were charged with the murder of an Iraqi detainee.

The military said in a statement that the vehicle accident on Saturday, which left another US soldier injured, was under investigation.

In another statement, the military said that Staff Sgt Hal M Warner and 1st Lt Michael C Behenna were charged on Saturday with premeditated murder, assault, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice.

'The charges followed a criminal investigation into the death of Ali Mansur Mohammed, a detainee initially believed to have been released by coalition forces on or about May 16,' the statement said.