Blasts shake Baghdad to cap deadly month for police

Story Highlights

• NEW: Iraqi Interior Ministry says more police, fewer civilians killed in February
• Blast in the Iraqi capital kills at least 10 people and wounds 21 others
• U.S.-led coalition kills eight suspected terrorists, detains six others in raids
• A coalition spokesman calls the report of 18 boys killed in Ramadi "erroneous"

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A car bomb exploded Wednesday near a market in southwestern Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 21 others, an Iraqi emergency police official said.

The blast struck the capital's Bayaa neighborhood. Authorities said the death toll is expected to rise.

"People were in a state of panic. There was a lot of blood on the ground, and we helped carrying the wounded to the ambulances," Shiite Muslim shopkeeper Imad Jassim told The Associated Press.

In a later attack, a suicide car bomb exploded outside the Bab al-Sheik police station in central Baghdad, killing two people and wounding three others. One of the dead and two of the wounded were police officers.

Early Wednesday, U.S.-led coalition forces killed eight suspected terrorists and detained six others in raids targeting al Qaeda in Iraq and foreign fighter facilitators in the Baghdad area, a U.S. military statement said. (Watch U.S. general grilled on the situation in Iraq )

Backed by air support, coalition forces fought armed men in a palm grove northeast of Taji, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad, according to the statement.

"Rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft used precision fires killing eight armed terrorists," the military said. "Two suspected terrorists were detained."

In other operations, coalition forces captured two suspected terrorists in western Baghdad's Amiriya neighborhood and two more elsewhere in the capital with alleged ties to al Qaeda in Iraq.

U.S. officer: Report of deadly blast 'erroneous'

The U.S. military is disputing a report that 18 boys were killed Tuesday when a bomb detonated near a soccer field in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

Coalition spokesman Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox on Wednesday called the report of 18 deaths "erroneous" and reiterated previous U.S. military assertions that the only explosion in Ramadi on Tuesday was administered by coalition troops in a controlled setting.

Col. Tariq al-Theibani, Iraqi security adviser for Anbar province, said the incident may have been confused with a blast Monday in the same area.

He said a parked minibus -- packed with wood and dynamite -- detonated Monday, not Tuesday, near an open area in a southeast Ramadi area children use as a soccer field.

Eighteen people were killed and 35 others were wounded, some critically, al-Theibani said. Women, children and police officers were reportedly among the casualties.

Iraqi Interior Ministry releases death figures

More Iraqi police officers were killed and wounded in the line of duty in February, but there was a slight drop in Iraqi civilian deaths, according to monthly figures from Iraq's Interior Ministry.

The ministry said 132 police were killed and 174 were wounded in February. In January, 59 Iraqi police were killed and 133 were wounded.

Twenty-nine Iraqi soldiers were killed and 51 were wounded in February. Forty-one Iraqi soldiers were killed and 58 were wounded in January.

The ministry said 1,646 civilians were killed this month. The deaths include 544 bodies recovered in Baghdad and 138 found in other provinces. This is down from last month's figure of 1,990 Iraqi civilians dead.

Among the dead last month were 1,003 bodies found dumped in Baghdad and 61 found in other provinces. Slain bodies found dumped in Baghdad and elsewhere are regarded as a result of sectarian violence.

There were 2,702 Iraqi civilians wounded in violence in February compared with 1,936 in January.

The monthly death figures issued by the Iraqi government normally are much lower than the counts released by the United Nations. The last U.N. human rights report had 6,376 civilians killed violently in November and December.

The Interior Ministry said fewer insurgents were killed and more were arrested this month. There were 450 insurgents killed and 1,954 detained in February, compared with 593 insurgents killed and 926 detained in January.

Other developments

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani -- hospitalized in neighboring Jordan after falling ill Sunday -- is "doing very well and is improving all the time," his spokesman, Kamaran Karadaghi, said Wednesday. One hospital source said doctors performed a catheterization procedure on his heart. But son Qubad Talabani denied that his father had undergone such a procedure, saying he was hospitalized as a "precautionary measure."

Two brothers of a prominent Sunni politician were shot and killed Wednesday, the Iraqi Islamic Party said in a statement. Salim al-Joubori's brothers were killed in Muqdadiya, north of Baghdad. Al-Joubori is a member of parliament and spokesman for the Iraqi Accord Front, Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab political bloc.

A British soldier was killed Tuesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra when his patrol was attacked by small-arms fire, Britain's Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday. The soldier was serving in the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles. With the death, 133 British military personnel have died in the Iraq war.

U.S. officials won't hold direct talks with Iran or Syria at a Baghdad conference next month despite the Bush administration's complaints that those countries are allowing weapons to flow into Iraq, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday. Direct talks would happen only if those countries made changes to their own policies, Snow said.

A U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The incident occurred during a patrol Tuesday in a "western urban district" of the capital. The number of U.S. military deaths in the war now stands at 3,155; seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department also have been killed. In February alone, 79 troops have died.

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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