Truck, suicide bombs across Iraq injure and kill dozens

~ At least 48 people were killed and 103 wounded in two attacks in Tal Afar.

BAGHDAD -- Two nearly simultaneous truck bombs -- including one detonated by remote control -- ripped through markets in Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 48 people and wounding dozens, police said, as violence surged outside the Iraqi capital.

A suicide car bomber exploded his payload near Ramadi, killing 10 people, and another attacker detonated his explosives-laden car near a police patrol in Baqouba, killing two policemen.

The attacks in Tal Afar, the second in four days, occurred about five minutes apart at popular markets in the northern and central parts of the city, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad.

At least 48 people were killed and 103 wounded, police Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri said.

One of the trucks was detonated by remote control while people gathered to buy the flour it was carrying in the central Shiite neighborhood of Muhyou, a local policeman said. The other truck was loaded with vegetables and parked near a wholesale market, not far from a primary school that was closed for the day.

Jaafar Akram, a teacher who saw that explosion, said he helped the police and other civilians carry the wounded to vehicles taking them to the hospital.

"I instantly saw smoke then I heard the blast," Akram said, adding that body parts were thrown on the ground and the walls and vegetables were scattered in pools of blood.

"Thanks be to God the blast didn't occur during rush hour at the school," he said. "That reduced the disaster."

On Saturday, a man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up outside a pastry shop in the central market area in the predominantly Shiite Turkomen city, killing at least 10 people and wounding three.

Tal Afar, about 90 miles east of the Syrian border, is a mainly Turkomen city with about 60 percent of its residents adhering to Shiite Islam and 40 percent Sunnis.

It has suffered frequent insurgent attacks despite a March 20, 2006, declaration by President Bush that the city was an example of Iraq's improving security.

Among the largest attacks were a suicide car bombing on Oct. 7 that targeted a police checkpoint and killed 14 people, and a Sept. 18 suicide bombing that killed 20 and wounded 17.

A car bomb also obliterated a tent crowded with mourners for the funeral of a Kurdish official May 1, 2005, killing 25 people, and 30 were killed when a suicide attacker set off explosives hidden beneath his clothing outside an army recruiting center Oct. 11, 2005.

Tal Afar was an insurgent stronghold until U.S. and Iraqi troops drove them out in a September 2006 operation and constructed huge sand barriers around the city to limit access.

Bush cited that operation, in which insurgents melted away into the countryside rather than fight, as an example that gave him "confidence in our strategy."

Tuesday's vehicle bombings and an eruption of sectarian clashes south of Baghdad underscored concerns that militants have fled the capital in response to a U.S.-led security crackdown, bringing violence with them to the hinterlands.

The suicide car bomber near Ramadi struck a district northeast of the provincial capital that was not patrolled by the military, police Col. Tarik Yousif said.

Another suicide car bomber struck a police patrol in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding four other people, police said.

But Baghdad saw its own violence Tuesday, as a mortar attack in the Sunni-dominated Dora neighborhood killed four people, including two children, a woman and a man -- the second deadly mortar attack on the enclave in three days.

Police also opened fire on a suicide car bomber as he drove toward a checkpoint near a cemetery in the center of the capital at about 5:40 p.m., but he was able to detonate his explosives killing one policeman and seriously wounding three other people, police said.

The U.S. military said a Marine was killed Saturday during combat in Anbar province west of Baghdad.

Separately, Kirkuk police 1st. Lt. Marewan Salih said two elderly Chaldean Catholic nuns were killed by intruders who raided their home Monday night near Kirkuk's Cathedral of the Virgin in Kirkuk and stabbed multiple times. They lived alone and there was no sign of a robbery, Salih said.

Margaret Naoum, 79, was stabbed seven times as she stood in the garden just outside the sisters' home. The attackers then found Fawzeiyah Naoum, 85, lying on the sofa inside, recovering from eye surgery last week. She was stabbed three times.

Chaldean Catholics are an ancient Eastern rite now united with Roman Catholicism. Adherents live mainly in Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq and most speak a dialect of Turkish.

In politics, a plan by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani to introduce legislation to allow former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling party -- including those in the feared security and paramilitary forces -- resume jobs in the government or receive pensions met with criticism.

The commission currently carrying out the government's so-called "de-Baathfication" policy said the draft law ignored victims of the former regime in a highly critical statement, indicating the draft law could face trouble in parliament.

"This draft turns a blind eye to the feelings of millions of the victims of Baath Party and pays no heed to their emotions and rights. This will not lead to reconciliation," the statement said.

Long demanded by the U.S. to appease Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, the measure would set a three-month challenge period after which ex-Baath Party loyalists would be immune from legal punishment for their actions during Saddam's reign.

The draft law, which excludes former regime members already charged with or sought for crimes, also would grant state pensions to many Baathists, even if they were denied posts in the government or military.

The reconciliation measure is seen as an effort to short-circuit expected criticism of Iraq's government at an Arab League summit this week. Al-Maliki is said to fear rising support among U.S.-allied Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for an Iraqi national unity government led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a favorite of Washington.