Another suicide car bomb exploded in Baghdad this morning, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 80 others near a busy market in the east of the city.

At least eight cars and a bus were caught in the blast shortly before 7am local time. Several storefronts were blown in and stalls operated by street vendors were sent flying, while apartments had their windows blown in and roofs damaged.

Insurgent attacks have now reached record levels, killing around 400 Iraqis in the past two weeks. Yesterday 71 died in four suicide bombings in Baghdad, Tikrit and Hawija. There was also a bomb attack on a fertiliser plant in Basra, a mortar attack on the old Oil Ministry and a drive-by shooting in the capital, in which two Iraqi soldiers were killed.

In other violence today, an official from the Defence Ministry’s operations centre was killed by gunmen in southwestern Baghdad. Brigadier Ayad Imad Mehdi died when three insurgents stopped his car and shot him dead before fleeing. Gunmen also killed an Interior Ministry official, Colonel Muhammad al-Taie, in a separate attack.

US forces who arrived at the scene of the suicide bombing today in Baghdad fired rounds into the air to disperse the crowd while bystanders threw stones at them, witnesses said. The crowd also attacked two Iraqi photographers.

Anwar Ibrahim, a 32-year-old mechanic who witnessed the blast but escaped unhurt, said: "There was no sign of a police presence or US patrols at the time of the explosion."

A second bomb, planted in a parked car, exploded three hours later in a western area of the city as a US military convoy was driving by. It was not known if any US soldiers were hurt, but five Iraqi civilians in five cars were wounded in the attack in the Khadra district.

There was more violence in the north of Iraq today when two car bombs exploded in Kirkuk, killing at least two people and wounding four. Police said one was aimed at a police station although it did not suffer any damage.

Explosives experts were called to the northeastern entrance of the city after residents spotted a roadside bomb, said police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader. But as they dismantled it, a car bomb parked nearby exploded, wounding two of them.

Meanwhile, two US Marines were killed in western Iraq when an explosion hit their vehicle. Another 14 Marines were also wounded in the attack last night.

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