BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A series of attacks in the Iraqi capital Thursday targeted police and civilians, including a suicide bombing at a restaurant that killed at least 34 people, Iraqi police said.
Another 25 were wounded when the bomber, strapped with explosives, detonated inside Qadduri restaurant in central Baghdad at about 9:40 a.m. (1:40 a.m. ET.)
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the Multinational Force Iraq, blamed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, for the attack on "a known restaurant for Iraqi police as they change shifts."
Lynch said al-Zarqawi was getting orders from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
"Zarqawi's got a mission, he's been told by Zawahiri to create an Islamic caliphate in Iraq from which they can spread thier evil across the region," Lynch said.
"(Zarqawi) still has the capability of recruiting suicide bombers, training those suicide bombers, and giving them the munitions, and that's what happned in Baghdad today and that's what happened in Jordan yesterday and that will continue.
"That's why we will continue operations to deny him that capability."
The United States is offering $25 million for the capture of Zarqawi, the same reward being offered for bin Laden.
Lynch said Iraqi police were inside the restaurant, having breakfast, at the time of the attack.
Despite the bombing, Lynch said "we have indeed seen a reduction of suicide attacks, specifically in Baghdad."
In a separate attack, gunmen opened fire on a husband and wife who worked for the city council in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliya, killing both of them, police said.
The couple were entering the city council building at 8 a.m. (midnight ET) when the attack happened. The gunmen sped away in a vehicle.
A remotely detonated car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada wounded two policemen and a civilian, police said.
The attack, which happened at 2 p.m. (6 a.m. ET), left three cars engulfed in flames, including a police vehicle, police said.
Around the same time, six civilians were wounded in Baghdad when a roadside bomb detonated near a mosque in the eastern neighborhood of al-Jadeeda, according to Iraqi police.
In a deadly attack in Tikrit, police said a suicide car bomb exploded outside a medical center checking Iraqi army recruits. Four recruits were killed and 13 others wounded.
Iraqi soldiers found 27 bodies blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs, and shot in the head execution-style in Jassan, east of Baghdad, according to Baghdad emergency police. The bodies had been there for several days.
Meanwhile, Iraqi soldiers went on graveyard duty Thursday to help Iraqi civilians bury their dead in the aftermath of the U.S. Marine offensive in Husayba, near the Syrian border, as the main thrust of Operation Steel Curtain moved into Karabila to the east.
Major sweeps ended Monday inside Husayba, a town insurgents have used as a base -- and a conduit into and out of Syria.
Marines encountered little resistance -- some sporadic small arms fire -- when they reached Karabila early Thursday afternoon. They detonated a car bomb they found and a warehouse that had been wired to explode.
Operation Spear pushed through Karabila in June, when Marines freed four Iraqis -- one a border policeman -- who had been kidnapped, tortured and left chained to a wall.
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Another 25 were wounded when the bomber, strapped with explosives, detonated inside Qadduri restaurant in central Baghdad at about 9:40 a.m. (1:40 a.m. ET.)
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the Multinational Force Iraq, blamed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, for the attack on "a known restaurant for Iraqi police as they change shifts."
Lynch said al-Zarqawi was getting orders from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
"Zarqawi's got a mission, he's been told by Zawahiri to create an Islamic caliphate in Iraq from which they can spread thier evil across the region," Lynch said.
"(Zarqawi) still has the capability of recruiting suicide bombers, training those suicide bombers, and giving them the munitions, and that's what happned in Baghdad today and that's what happened in Jordan yesterday and that will continue.
"That's why we will continue operations to deny him that capability."
The United States is offering $25 million for the capture of Zarqawi, the same reward being offered for bin Laden.
Lynch said Iraqi police were inside the restaurant, having breakfast, at the time of the attack.
Despite the bombing, Lynch said "we have indeed seen a reduction of suicide attacks, specifically in Baghdad."
In a separate attack, gunmen opened fire on a husband and wife who worked for the city council in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliya, killing both of them, police said.
The couple were entering the city council building at 8 a.m. (midnight ET) when the attack happened. The gunmen sped away in a vehicle.
A remotely detonated car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada wounded two policemen and a civilian, police said.
The attack, which happened at 2 p.m. (6 a.m. ET), left three cars engulfed in flames, including a police vehicle, police said.
Around the same time, six civilians were wounded in Baghdad when a roadside bomb detonated near a mosque in the eastern neighborhood of al-Jadeeda, according to Iraqi police.
In a deadly attack in Tikrit, police said a suicide car bomb exploded outside a medical center checking Iraqi army recruits. Four recruits were killed and 13 others wounded.
Iraqi soldiers found 27 bodies blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs, and shot in the head execution-style in Jassan, east of Baghdad, according to Baghdad emergency police. The bodies had been there for several days.
Meanwhile, Iraqi soldiers went on graveyard duty Thursday to help Iraqi civilians bury their dead in the aftermath of the U.S. Marine offensive in Husayba, near the Syrian border, as the main thrust of Operation Steel Curtain moved into Karabila to the east.
Major sweeps ended Monday inside Husayba, a town insurgents have used as a base -- and a conduit into and out of Syria.
Marines encountered little resistance -- some sporadic small arms fire -- when they reached Karabila early Thursday afternoon. They detonated a car bomb they found and a warehouse that had been wired to explode.
Operation Spear pushed through Karabila in June, when Marines freed four Iraqis -- one a border policeman -- who had been kidnapped, tortured and left chained to a wall.
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Jesus WTFFF?!?!
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