Bombs kill 25 in Baghdad, three UK troops in Basra

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BAGHDAD, June 28 (Reuters): A car bomb killed 25 people Thursday at a busy intersection in Baghdad where minibuses pick up and drop off passengers, while 20 beheaded bodies were found on a river bank south of the capital, Iraqi police said.
In the southern city of Basra, a roadside bomb killed three British soldiers and seriously wounded another in the early hours of Thursday, the British military said.
The soldiers were on foot at the time of the blast in southeastern Basra, spokesman Major David Gell said.
The latest attacks underscore the strength of Sunni and Shi'ite militants in Iraq despite the arrival of 28,000 additional US troops. The unrelenting violence is pushing the country to the brink of all-out sectarian civil war.
Police in Baghdad said the car bomb exploded in the Shi'ite district of Bayaa. The blast, which went off during the morning rush hour, wounded 40 people and destroyed dozens of vehicles.
The Bayaa area in southwest Baghdad has been a frequent target of car bombs blamed on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.
"It was a horrible explosion. Many, many people have been killed," said witness Aqeel Kadhim, saying pickup trucks and ambulances rushed to take away the dead and wounded.
The blast dug a huge crater where the minibuses parked.
Residents could be seen searching the burned out minibuses for bodies. Corpses, some charred beyond recognition, lay twisted on the ground.
Tens of thousands of US and Iraqi troops are engaged in an offensive against al Qaeda in an attempt to take down its car bomb networks, which have killed and maimed thousands of Iraqis.