27 killed in Baghdad area attacks

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Attackers targeting Iraqi police and civilians in and around Baghdad on Sunday killed 27 people and wounded 45 others, Iraqi officials said.

Sunday's deadliest attack happened about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Baghdad when a bomb hit a truck carrying Iraqi army recruits, killing 15 and wounding 25 others -- most of them recruits, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

The recruits were heading from Falluja to Baghdad around 11:30 a.m. when they were hit by the explosion in the town of Haswa, the official said.

Police are investigating whether the truck driver, who was critically wounded, may have been involved in the attack.

The rest of the casualties were the result of bombings in Baghdad.

A car bomb exploded about 10:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. ET) on a busy commercial street in central Baghdad's Karrada district. Six people were killed and seven were wounded.

Minutes later a second car bomb detonated outside a restaurant in Baghdad's Jadriya district, killing three civilians and wounding eight others, the Interior Ministry said.

In the busy Shorja market in central Baghdad a roadside bomb killed three people and wounded five others, according to a Baghdad police official.

The U.S. military said coalition forces picked up 10 suspected terrorists during raids targeting car bombing networks across the capital Sunday.

At least 150 killed in powerful suicide bombing

Meanwhile, the death toll from Saturday's powerful suicide bombing at a marketplace in northern Iraq now stands at 150, a government official said. Watch villagers rush victims off to hospitals »

At least 250 others were injured when a truck laden with two tons of explosives detonated in an outdoor market in Amerli. The truck resembled an Iraqi military truck, according to an official at the Joint Coordination Center in Tuz Khurmatu.

Amerli is a village predominately populated by Shiite Turkmens and Kurds. It is about 100 miles north of Baghdad in Salaheddin province, near the city of Tuz Khurmatu.

Separately, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker issued a statement Sunday announcing that two Iraqi citizens working at the embassy were killed "at the hands of violent extremists" after they were kidnapped in May.

The statement said the Iraqi government would "relentlessly pursue those responsible."

Crocker said both employees -- described as "our friends and our colleagues" -- represented the "silent majority of Iraqis working to build a peaceful and prosperous future" there.

"They are the true Iraq," he said.

Other developments

Iraq is on target to meet by September key political benchmarks set by the U.S. Congress, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said Sunday. Iraqi lawmakers have cut their planned two-month recess in half and will be working six-day weeks for the rest of this month to try to pass the provisions by September, he said. (Full story)

A suicide car bomber struck a U.S. military patrol west of Baghdad on Sunday, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding three others, the U.S. military said. The number of American military killed in the Iraq war stands at 3,607, including seven U.S. military contractors, according to a CNN count.

E-mail to a friend

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

All About Iraq War • Baghdad