Bomb attacks kill 2, wound 9 in Iraq

Two bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding nine, police said, as the U.S. military announced the deaths of a Marine and a soldier.

The first blast occurred when a parked car bomb struck about 9 a.m. near the Finance Ministry, which is run by Bayan Jabr, a Shiite and former interior minister. One civilian was killed and four other people were wounded, including a ministry guard, police said.

A bomb planted under a car exploded about 45 minutes later in the predominantly Shiite commercial district of Karradah in downtown Baghdad, killing a woman and wounding five, police said.

Tuesday's bomb attacks came one day after two car bombs tore through a Baghdad market crowded with Shiites, leaving 88 dead in the bloodiest attack since Nov. 23, when suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters attacked the capital's Sadr City Shiite slum with a series of car bombs and mortars that struck in quick succession, killing at least 215 people.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said that a Marine was killed in fighting south of Baghdad, while an American soldier died of wounds sustained in a volatile province west of the capital.

The Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died Sunday from wounds sustained in combat while operating in the Multi-National Division-Baghdad area of operation, south of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

The death raised to 28 the number of American troops killed in a particularly bloody weekend for U.S. forces in Iraq _ 25 on Saturday and three on Sunday.

A soldier assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 was killed Monday due to enemy action in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, according to the statement.

The deaths raised to at least 3,063 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol struck the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, wounding a child, police said.

Police also said six people waiting to collect welfare benefits were wounded when a bomb left in a sack exploded at a social welfare department in eastern Baghdad.