(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-09 19:27

BAGHDAD - Two nearly simultaneous car bombs targeted a local police chief and a prominent Sunni sheik working with US forces against al-Qaida in Iraq in a northern city on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, authorities said.

An Iraqi man walks among the ruins of a wall of a house in Al-Mashtal district, eastern Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007. Two mortar rounds hit some houses eastern Baghdad on Monday, Oct. 8, killing 2 civilians and injuring 6 others, police said. [Agencies]

In the Iraqi capital, a parked car bomb struck a commercial area in the Khulani district, killing at least eight and wounding 25 people, including four traffic policemen. Also, in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, another parked car bomb killed two people and wounded 16, according to police.

The attacks were among a series of bombings in recent days as the terror network apparently steps up its promised Ramadan offensive as the end of the Islamic holy month draws near.

At least 24 people were killed in Baghdad and to the north on Monday in car and truck bombings, which are generally blamed on al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents. Many of the attacks have targeted Iraqi police officers, who have been frequent targets of the insurgency because they are seen as cooperating with the US and Iraqi governments.

In Beiji, a Sunni city 155 miles north of Baghdad, a minibus laden with explosives slammed into the house of a local police chief, while a Toyota Land Cruiser blew up outside the home of a leading member of the local Awakening Council, a group of Iraqis who have turned against extremists in the area.

Six houses were destroyed in the blasts, which took place within minutes of each other and some 500 yards apart in a residential area. Police and hospital officials said at least 18 people were killed and 27 wounded.

The neighborhood was sealed off as rescue workers searched through the rubble for other victims.

The US military said the police chief survived, but there was no immediate word if the Sunni tribal official was among the casualties.

"This is yet another failed attempt to break the will of the Iraqi people who just want to go on with their lives without violence, raise their children, earn a living and coexist together in a peaceful manner," said Lt. Col. Michael O. Donnelly, military spokesman for northern Iraq.

Witness Saleh Jassim Moussa said two of his relatives from the neighborhood were killed in the attacks.

The force of the blast was so strong, it shattered all the windows and ripped the doors from their frames in his home, only a 100 yards away from the first explosion.

"It was a really huge explosion, we panicked and ran out but for minutes, we couldn't see anything because of the heavy smoke," said Moussa, 38, a government employee, who was reached by phone. "We're still digging through the rubble, looking for others."

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