String of bombings kill 16 in Baghdad

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BAGHDAD, April 6 (AP): A string of bombing attacks in Baghdad Monday killed at least 16 people and wounded 56 others, as the US military reported its first combat death in Iraq in about three weeks.
The first attack occurred in the morning when a car bomb exploded in the centre of the capital, killing at least six people and wounding 16, said an Iraqi police official, who described them as mostly day labourers looking for work.
About an hour later at 8:30 am, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in eastern Baghdad killed two more people and wounded six others, said another police official.
Then just a half hour afterward, two other car bombs exploded in different markets in the largely Shiite eastern parts of the capital, killing a total of eight people and wounding 34, said a security official.
It was not clear if any of the attacks were connected. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.
The explosions come amid a period of relative calm in most of Iraq, where violence has dropped by more than 90 per cent.