BAGHDAD, Iraq, AP Suspected insurgents set off two bombs in a public market in northern Iraq on Saturday, the second one timed to hit emergency crews arriving at the scene, and the blasts killed at least two Iraqis and wounded 17, police said.
The bodies of 10 Iraqis who apparently were tortured and killed in captivity also were found in other areas of Iraq, police said.
In the market attack, the fist bomb exploded at 7:30 a.m. in the middle Muqdadiyah, a town about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, causing a large fire, police in Diyala province said on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
When fire engines arrived, the second bomb went off, killing a firefighter and a civilian, and wounding 17 civilians, police said.
The bullet-ridden bodies of nine Iraqis were found in several locations in and around Baghdad on Saturday, police said. Many of the victims were blindfolded with their hands and legs bound in rope. Some appeared to have been tortured, and one had been decapitated, police said.
In Kut, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police found a body floating in the Tigris River on Saturday. The victim showed signs of torture, including a severely damaged head, said Hadi al-Ittabi, an employee of the Kut Forensic Center.
Such killings are common in Iraq, and security forces often can’t tell if the dead were the victims of insurgents, sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis, or criminals.
In eastern Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol near al-Mashtal Bridge exploded at 9:15 a.m., wounding two policemen, said police Lt. Bilal Ali.
On Friday, at least 22 Iraqis were killed, including six in a car bombing in Tal Afar in western Iraq and six off-duty Iraqi soldiers were slain in Beiji in northern Iraq, police said.
The U.S. military announced that a Marine was fatally injured in combat Thursday in Anbar province.
An Australian soldier also was shot and killed in what the nation’s army chief called a “tragic accident” inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, where Iraq’s government and some officials and soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition are based.