Sign InRegister

Iraq violence claims 34 lives

Two British, two U.S. troops among dead

Terrorists targeted Iraqis in a parking lot next to the Victory Base Complex in western Baghdad.

Gallery: Inside a field hospital

• Interactive: Iraq's government

• Medics battle death daily in Iraq

• On the Scene: Docs face emotional toll

SPECIAL REPORT

• Your e-mails: After al-Zarqawi

• Tracking Terror: Who's next?

• Interactive: Iraq's population

• Coalition Casualties

• Special Report

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A spate of weekend violence, concentrated near the Iraqi capital, has claimed 34 lives -- most of them civilians -- and leveled six Shiite shrines, evidence that sectarian tensions are still strong.

In the deadliest attack, 14 Iraqi civilians were killed and six others were wounded in a suicide car bombing near the main checkpoint on the road that leads to Baghdad International Airport, according to an Iraqi security source and the U.S. military.

The attackers detonated the explosives in a parking lot adjacent to Victory Base Complex in western Baghdad, a statement from the Multi-National Division said. The terrorists were targeting Iraqis who had congregated in the parking lot, the military said.

Two British soldiers were among those killed this weekend in a roadside bomb attack just north of the southern city of Basra, a British military source said, adding that a British soldier was wounded.

Also Sunday, two U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in east Baghdad, according to a U.S. military news release.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, 2,439 U.S. troops and military civilians have died in the Iraq war.

A total of 106 British troops have been killed.

The latest attacks came as Iraq's new parliament met Sunday. Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki has eight days left to submit his list of Cabinet nominees.

In other violence in Baghdad on Sunday:

Five civilians were killed and eight people were wounded, including one policeman, when a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol exploded at 9:45 a.m. local time on Palestine Street, according to a police official.

Seven civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police commando patrol exploded around 9:55 a.m. in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad, a police official said.

An Iraqi policeman was killed and five civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police patrol in northern Baghdad's al-Mughrab street around 10 a.m., according to an official with Iraq's Interior Ministry.

Two bakers were killed and two others were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a bakery around 10:40 a.m. in the northwestern neighborhood of Saydiya, the official said.

Three people were killed and 15 others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated in a crowded marketplace at 11:15 a.m. in the southeast district of Jisr Diyala, an official with Zafaraniya police station told CNN.

Two foreign ministry guards were killed in a roadside bomb explosion about 50 miles north of Baghdad, as they were returning to the capital, a foreign ministry source said. The guards were traveling alone and the foreign minister was not with them, the source said.

In violence outside Baghdad on Sunday:

Five Iraqi police were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in southern Kirkuk around 1 a.m., the city's police chief said. Kirkuk is about 150 miles north of Baghdad.

One Iraqi police officer was killed and four others wounded -- three police, one insurgent -- in a 20-minute gun battle in Mosul around 12:00 p.m., according to Col. Abdul Karim Khalaf. Mosul is about 250 miles north of Baghdad.

Two civilians were killed and nine other civilians were wounded when a car bomb detonated near a U.S. military convoy in Mosul around 1:30 p.m., Khalaf said.

Shrines destroyed

An official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center told CNN that gunmen planted bombs around four Shiite shrines in Wajihiya, about 8 miles southeast of Baquba, around 10 p.m. Saturday night.

The shrines destroyed were the Imam Jaber Bin Ali al-Hadi Shiite shrine, the Imam Abdullah Bin Ali al-Hadi shrine, the Shimiyar shrine and Imam Abu Habib shrine.

In Balad Ruz, east of Baquba, a Shiite shrine called the Fityan shrine was blown up late Saturday when bombs planted by gunmen exploded, the official said.

In Kanan, about 6 miles east of Baquba, the Tamim Shiite shrine was destroyed by bombs planted by gunmen on Saturday morning around 8 a.m., the official said.

No one was hurt in the shrine explosions, the official said.

A February 22 attack on the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, the third holiest Shiite Islam shrine in Iraq, sparked sectarian violence in Iraq that claimed more than 1,000 lives in Baghdad in April alone.