Bombs Strike Children, US Troops in Iraq

Followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr march in a ceremony in east Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007. Sadrists marched through Sadr City Sunday to mark the eighth anniversary of the assassination of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a revered Shiite religious leader and the father of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) (Karim Kadim - AP)

Iraqi children frequently converge on American troops who usually carry soccer balls and stuffed animals crammed in their armored vehicles as they seek to garner good will.

In July 2005, a suicide car bomber sped up to American soldiers distributing candy to children July 2005 and detonated his explosives, killing up to 27 people, including a dozen children and a U.S. soldier.

That occurred about nine months after 35 Iraqi children were killed in a string of bombs that exploded as American troops were handing out candy at a government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a sewage plant in west Baghdad.

Rocket and mortar barrages also hit several U.S. bases in Baghdad overnight.

Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman, said the attacks caused some casualties but no deaths.

"The fight we're up against has not gone away. Today's mortar and rocket attacks demonstrate that the enemy has the capacity to wage violence," Smith said. "We're working our way through those attacks and the level of damage."

In all, at least 29 people were killed Sunday, including the three soldiers.

The deadliest attack was a parked car bomb targeting a convoy carrying Salman al-Mukhtar, an adviser to the Iraqi finance minister. Al-Mukhtar escaped injury, but the blast in the predominantly Shiite district of Karradah in central Baghdad killed at least 10 people and wounded 21, including two of the official's bodyguards, according to police and hospital officials.

The chief editor of an independent daily newspaper, al-Bayan al-Jadid, Sattar Jabbar, was in the car with the minister's adviser when the explosion occurred but also was not hurt, Jabbar's brother, Abdul-Wahhab, said.

Smith, the U.S. military spokesman, said overall attacks in Iraq have fallen 55 percent since nearly 30,000 additional American troops arrived in Iraq by June, and some areas are experiencing their lowest levels of violence since the summer of 2005.

Iraqi civilian casualties were down 60 percent across the country since June, and the figure for Baghdad was even better _ 75 percent, Smith said.

But he acknowledged the "violence is still too high" and warned Iraq still faces serious threats from Shiite militants as well as al-Qaida in Iraq.