199 killed in June, Iraq says

Story Highlights

• A bomb killed five outside a Baghdad restaurant Thursday, Interior Ministry says
• A suicide car bomb killed nine near a police station in Rabia, officials said
• A journalist with Aswat al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq) was killed, police said

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nearly 200 people were victims of Baghdad's sectarian violence in the first week of June, with 32 bodies dumped around the capital on Thursday, an Iraq Interior Ministry official said.

The unidentified bodies bore the hallmarks of Iraq's sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunnis: gunshot wounds and signs of torture. They are among the 199 bodies that police have recovered in the first seven days of the month, the Interior Ministry official said.

In May, civilian deaths across the nation jumped by nearly 30 percent to 1,949, among them 746 bodies found dumped on the streets of Baghdad.

On Thursday, a car bomb killed five people and wounded 14 outside a popular restaurant on the edge of Baghdad's Sadr City, the Interior Ministry reported.

Also on Thursday a suicide car bomb killed nine people, including four police officers, near a police station in the northern town of Rabia, Iraqi army and hospital officials said. Another 22 people were wounded, mostly civilians, the officials said. Rabia is in Nineveh province, about 300 miles (482 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed Sahar al-Haydari, a journalist with the independent Aswat al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq) news agency, Thursday afternoon. She had lived in Mosul, about 260 miles (420 kilometers) north of Baghdad, and worked for a number media institutions, the news agency said. She leaves a husband and three daughters.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said some areas have seen "breathtaking" improvements, thanks to a push launched in January to pacify Baghdad and surrounding provinces. (Full story)

Nearly 30,000 additional American troops have been committed to the effort. And while tribal leaders in the western Sunni province of Anbar have begun cooperating with U.S. forces to battle al-Qaeda led jihadists, other areas have shown less improvement, he acknowledged. (Watch how al Qaeda in Iraq is facing a backlash )

The assessment was a contrast to that made by the general picked by President Bush to become his war adviser. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said he had serious concerns about the Iraqi government's ability to take control of its country, The Associated Press reported. (Details)

On Monday, another U.S. commander, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, said only a quarter of Baghdad is under control, and progress has come more slowly than planned in key neighborhoods because of a shortage of qualified Iraqi police officers.

The roadside bombing death of a U.S. soldier from the Army's Baghdad multinational division on Wednesday brought the U.S. death toll in the Iraq war to 3,503.

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.