Fiery Terror in Baghdad

Bombs Kill 18, Extending New Violence After Post-Election Calm

In a controlled explosion, U.S. troops destroy a car bomb discovered at the scene of a double car bombing in Baghdad. (Samir Mizban -- AP)

BAGHDAD, April 14 -- Running toward the bombs, the woman raced past bodies sprawled on a grassy median, orange flames leaping from flattened cars, men rushing with wounded children hanging limp in their arms.

"Waleed!" the woman screamed.

Shrieking at strangers, she pleaded: "Where is Waleed?"

He's alive, someone who knew her finally told her. Your son is alive and looking for you.

The woman stopped. Grabbing at her heart, she threw her head back and breathed.

The carnage in a residential neighborhood on Thursday was the result of back-to-back car bombs that shot shrapnel and flames into a street clogged with shoppers, students and a street cleaning crew. The attack killed 18 people and extended a recent surge of violence that has shattered weeks of post-election calm.

As a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad warned that Iraq could expect to be fighting an insurgency for several more years, clashes flared across the country. Gunmen killed five police officers in the northern city of Kirkuk, U.S. Marines reportedly retook a town on the Syrian border from outlaws and insurgents, and sporadic explosions once again rattled Baghdad and its people.

Insurgents detonated the morning car bombs on a street outside the Interior Ministry, which oversees Iraq's police forces. The explosions erupted -- minutes apart -- as cars, including a minivan carrying school-age children, were backed up behind a police escort guarding a convoy of fuel trucks, witnesses said.

"I saw the cars, one after the other, explode in front of my eyes," said Imad Hashimi, a street cleaner in a bright orange uniform vest, standing among men bloodied by carrying the dead and wounded. "I don't know how I survived."

Black smoke billowed up in dense columns as U.S. military helicopters circled overhead, their gunners' legs dangling in the air and weapons trained on the confusion below.

Fearing more bombs, police fired into the air to drive back civilians who had raced up to look for relatives or co-workers. "Get your cars out of here!" one officer yelled.

"Ali!" street cleaners shouted after taking a head count and realizing at least one of their own was missing. "Ali!" A supervisor later told the Associated Press that five members of his crew were among the dead.

Police pickup trucks raced off with bleeding wounded in the back. Men loaded injured children, many of them hanging limp, into vans.

An hour later, U.S. forces found and exploded a third car bomb that rocked the area with another strong blast, police said.