Iraq suicide blast kills 2 U.S. soldiers at Army outpost

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide truck bomb hit a U.S. Army outpost Thursday in Baghdad, killing two American soldiers and leaving 25 wounded, the U.S. military said.

One soldier was killed at the scene of the attack, while the second died of his wounds at a hospital.

The division's commander, Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, visited the wounded soon after the attack. (Watch the emotional scene as mass casualties arrive at a combat hospital -- 2:15)

A member of the 4th Infantry Division said that some of the wounded soldiers had been resting at the outpost before they were to go back out on patrol.

Six of the wounded had been returned to duty Thursday night, the U.S. command in Baghdad said.

"The explosion caused debris to be scattered into a concentrated troop area," the military said in a statement.

Two other U.S. soldiers died Thursday in separate attacks around the Iraqi capital, and another one died Wednesday near the northern city of Mosul after he suffered wounds from enemy fire, the U.S. military said.

The number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war stands at 2,671 since the 2003 invasion. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.

String of deadly attacks

Besides the soldiers, a string of attacks left more than 20 people dead Thursday across Iraq, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. (Watch as casualties mount in Iraq -- 2:22)

In the deadliest attack, nine people were killed and 26 others wounded in two explosions in central Baghdad, police said.

A roadside bomb first went off near a passport office and an orphanage in the Karrada neighborhood. A parked car near the site then detonated when police responded to the first bombing.

In the capital's northwestern Hurriya neighborhood, a car bomb killed one person and wounded 16 others.

In addition, gunmen shot and killed Col. Muthana Ali Hussein of the Iraqi traffic police Thursday as he was leaving his home in southern Baghdad's Doura area.

Later Thursday, a motorcycle rigged with explosives detonated in northern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding four, police said.

In four incidents north of Baghdad near Baquba, gunmen shot and killed seven people, including two police officers, and wounded six, police said.

In the northern city of Tal Afar, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Mosul, a suicide bomber strapped himself with explosives and detonated them at an Iraq police checkpoint, killing one police officer and wounding two others, police said.

South of Baghdad, gunmen clashed with Iraqi security forces in Diwaniya after loyalists to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets to protest U.S. military action, police said.

One person was killed and 10 others wounded in the melee, which began after U.S. forces surrounded al-Sadr's offices in Diwaniya, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal al-Sadr.

Local authorities later imposed a curfew to control the situation, police said. Diwaniya is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad in Qadisiya province.

More than 100 bodies found since Tuesday

More than 100 bodies -- most with signs of torture -- have been dumped across the Iraqi capital with gunshot wounds in the past three days.

Iraqi police found 49 bodies Thursday after discovering 60 of them Tuesday and another four Wednesday.

The bodies found are thought to be victims of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence. Most of the dumped bodies have been shot execution-style and frequently show signs of torture.

"[In] Baghdad at large, the number of execution-style murders, we have seen is creeping back up," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a briefing Thursday.

"And yesterday, as I think most of us realized, there was a spike in those numbers."

Nevertheless, Caldwell said that sectarian violence has dropped overall in the capital, especially in five neighborhoods where Iraqi and U.S. forces have launched a security crackdown called Operation Together Forward.

Other developments

Caldwell also announced Thursday that U.S. forces in Iraq have detained more than 70 suspected terrorists, including a key associate of the head of al Qaeda in Iraq. The spokesman did not identify the associate of militant leader Abu Ayyoub al-Masri but said he is "known to have directly participated in terrorist acts, including kidnappings and executions." The suspect also played a "key operational role" in terrorist activities before and during the U.S. military siege of the central Iraqi city of Falluja in November 2004, Caldwell said.

The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial said Thursday he does not believe the ousted Iraqi leader was a dictator, The Associated Press reported. Judge Abdullah al-Amiri made the remark in a friendly exchange with Hussein, a day after the prosecution said the jurist should step down because he is biased toward the defense, the AP said. (Full story)

An official vehicle carrying Japan's acting ambassador to Iraq was struck by a bullet on Thursday in Baghdad, but there were no injuries, The Associated Press reported, citing the Japanese Foreign Ministry. It was not immediately clear whether the shot was a stray bullet or aimed at the diplomat. The bullet cracked the vehicle's windshield, AP said. The incident occurred near the embassy in Baghdad, the AP reported.

CNN's Cal Perry contributed to this report.