Attacks kill at least 30 across Iraq
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Armed conflict rattled Iraq Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of at least 30 people in Kirkuk, Ramadi and near Baquba.
In Ramadi, coalition forces at a checkpoint shot five civilians to death not long after an insurgent car bombing killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded another in the same area.
The attacks in the Anbar provincial capital began around 3 p.m. when "insurgents drove a vehicle packed with explosives into an entry control point" and killed the soldier, according to a press release from the 2nd Marine Division.
Not long afterward, the Marines fired at a second vehicle when it sped toward the same checkpoint.
"Before reaching the outskirts of the checkpoint, it turned around and fled in the same direction it came," according to the Marines.
Then the same car headed toward the entry control point minutes later.
"After failing to heed the soldiers' warnings to decrease the rate of speed, coalition forces fired warning shots into the vehicle, disabling it.
"Within five minutes of that incident, a station wagon approached the ECP at a high rate of speed, also failing to heed the soldiers' warnings to slow down. Believing this to be another car bomb, coalition forces fired warning shots at the station wagon as well, disabling the vehicle."
"The results were tragic; but, given the enemy tactic of using multiple vehicle bombs, coalition forces believed the vehicle was another suicide car bomb," Col. Robert G. Sokoloski, chief of staff for the 2nd Marine Division said, according to a press release.
In addition to the five dead civilians, four others in the packed station wagon were wounded, Sokoloski said.
The deadliest incident took place Tuesday morning in oil-rich Kirkuk, where a suicide bomber detonated the explosives belt he was wearing in a busy market.
At least 19 people were killed, and 89 wounded in the explosion which occurred in Kirkuk's center, an Iraqi military official said.
Most of those killed or injured had gathered outside a bank to receive monthly paychecks, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin.
Two hours earlier, in the town of Kanaan near Baquba, a coordinated car bomb and mortar attack on a police station killed five people and wounded four others, police said.
Police and Iraqi army members were among the dead, police said.
The town is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.
In the capital, a U.S. soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack. The soldier was identified as belonging to the 18th Military Police Brigade in Baghdad, the military said.
Two coalition soldiers were wounded in the attack. The death brings the number of American troops dead in the Iraq war to 1,702.
The violence occurred during a busy time for the government, which is trying to shore up the country's economic and political system as it fights the insurgency.
Iraqi officials are planning for an international conference in Brussels next week to garner world backing, and national assembly members are trying to cobble together a new constitution by August 15.
Arrests in Iraq, Germany
Also Tuesday, the Iraqi government announced the arrest of a suspect described as a key member of an al Qaeda cell.
The government said Jassim Hazan Hamadi El Bazi -- also known as Abu Ahmed -- built and sold remote-controlled bombs from an electronic repair shop in Balad, north of Baghdad. He also is accused of selling missiles, guns, mortars and hand grenades, the government said.
"Iraqi security officials believe he is a primary suspect for providing weapons and the training for attacks" against Iraqi civilians, forces and officials, a statement said.
Also Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Germany said three people were arrested in connection with Ansar al-Islam -- the al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq tied to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The three were arrested on charges of collecting money, delivering goods and driving for the group, the prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe said in a statement. Authorities questioned 11 others before releasing them.
There was no evidence the suspects were planning attacks in Germany, the statement said.
The prosecutor's office said the arrests were part of a search Tuesday of at least two dozen sites in Germany.
Other developments
An attorney for Saddam Hussein complained Tuesday that the toppled Iraqi dictator had been held too long without being charged and that a trial was unlikely by fall, when some Iraqi officials have predicted proceedings would begin. Giovanni di Stefano said the trial should be held outside Iraq for security reasons. He also said defense attorneys have lacked access to millions of documents that the United States maintains and has shipped to Qatar. An Iraqi special tribunal that is expected to try Saddam released video Monday of magistrates questioning the ousted leader. A bearded Saddam appears with four officials from his former regime in the tape, which was shot Sunday. (Full story)An Iraqi police official Tuesday said seven bodies were found in western Iraq on Monday, all shot to death. These bodies are in addition to those of 17 civilians found Monday in the Habaniya area of the desert in the Anbar province.Massoud Barzani, the longtime leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, was sworn in Tuesday in Irbil as the first president of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The U.S. military said Tuesday that insurgent attacks Monday in the northern city of Mosul killed a child and another civilian and wounded three others.CNN's Chris Burns, Kevin Flower, Ayman Mohyeldin, Kianne Sadeq and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
