By IINA,
Baghdad : A car bomb has exploded in a Baghdad commercial district, killing nine people and wounding about 20 others. Police say the bomb went off today morning in eastern Baghdad as a U.S. military patrol passed through the area. In other violence, Iraqi officials say fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr City district has killed eight people since late Wednesday.
Baghdad has seen a rise in violence since late March, when Iraqi and U.S. forces increased operations against Shi’ite fighters in Sadr City. The district is a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada Al Sadr.
The U.S. military says its forces killed 27 insurgents during operations in Baghdad yesterday and early today, while bomb attacks killed four American troops. The U.S. military in Iraq says April was its deadliest month since last September, with 51 troops killed, more than half of them in Baghdad. Tahseen Al Sheikhly, a Baghdad security official, says the fighting in Sadr City has killed 925 people and wounded 26-hundred others. Across Iraq, the Associated Press says violence killed at least 1,080 Iraqi civilians and security forces in April, down from March’s tally of 1,269. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has vowed to disarm militias by force and disband al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, Sunni insurgent groups and al-Qaida in Iraq.