19 killed in Baghdad shooting, blast

Baghdad: A shooting and a car bombing killed 19 people on Tuesday in northeast Baghdad, police said.

Gunmen stormed a garage and killed five people inside. A car bomb later detonated outside the garage, killing 14 civilians and injuring 33 others, police said.

No further details were available. Gunmen also killed seven Iraqi civilians Tuesday in the capital.

Six civilians died when gunmen opened fire in the southern Hor Rijab Shiite district, while a seventh civilian was killed when gunmen struck at a police patrol in western Baghdad's Qahtan Square.

Also, three bodies were found in two neighborhoods of Baghdad. All had been shot in the head and appeared to have been tortured.

Hundreds of bodies have been dumped in the capital and other Iraqi cities since the February 22 bombing of Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, an incident that sparked Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence.

The US military reported the deaths of three American soldiers in roadside blasts.

An American soldier was killed on Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded in southern Baghdad, the military said.

Two soldiers from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division were killed Monday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Balad, north of the capital, in Salaheddin province.

The deaths bring to 2,440 the number of US troops who have died in the Iraq war. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.

A roadside bomb exploded but missed a US military convoy in southeastern Baghdad's Zafaraniya neighborhood. A civilian was wounded, police said.

The violence came as the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein heard testimony Tuesday from defense witnesses.

Al-Zarqawi aide arrested

Iraqi forces apprehended an aide to terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi late Monday in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

Salah Hussein Abdul Razaq was detained during an operation in northern Ramadi, the ministry said. A confiscated cell phone included a picture of him and al-Zarqawi together.

Ministry forces later arrested Omar Ahmed Salih, also known as Abu Jibril, a leader of the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Tawhid wa Jihad.

Abu Jibril was arrested at his house in southwestern Baghdad, where forces also confiscated weapons and munitions, the ministry said.