IRAQ - May 6 - 8 US Troops And 95 Iraqis Dead In Nationwide Violence.

Roadside bombs kill 8 American soldiers and a European journalist in Iraq, and a car bomb claims 30 more lives in a wholesale food market in a part of Baghdad where sectarian tensions are on the rise. In all, at least 95 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide May 6, the police reported. They included 12 policemen in Samarra, among them the city's police chief, who died when Sunni insurgents launched a string of attacks, including a suicide car bombing, on their headquarters. The deadliest attack against US forces occurred in Diyala, where six American soldiers and a European journalist were killed when a massive bomb destroyed their vehicle, the US military said. Two American soldiers were wounded, the military said. Two other American soldiers died Sunday in separate bombings in Baghdad. The military Sunday also reported three other deaths

two Marines in a blast Sunday in Anbar Province and a soldier who died May 6 in a noncombat incident in northern Iraq. The market bombing occurred about noon in the Baiyaa district of western Baghdad, shattering vehicles, ripping roofs off nearby buildings and collapsing storefronts. The police said about 80 people were wounded in addition to the 30 dead. Following the horrific blast, pools of blood formed on the dirt streets. Hospital officials said two pickup trucks filled with body parts were brought to the morgue. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed allegations by Sunni politicians that Shi'ite militias had resumed their campaign to expel Sunnis from Baiyaa. Most of the shops in the market were believed owned by Shi'ites. That raised speculation that the bombing was carried out by Sunni hard-liners in reprisal for the alleged expulsions, which were believed to have slowed across the capital since the start of the Baghdad security crackdown Feb. 14. The attacks in Samarra, a Sunni city 95 Kms, or 60 miles, north of Baghdad, began when a suicide car bomber struck the police headquarters. Following the blast, dozens of insurgents - some wearing masks and wielding video cameras - opened fire on the building and at least one police checkpoint, witnesses said. The police chief, Colonel Jalil Nahi Hassoun, and 11 other policemen were killed, officials said, although it was unclear whether they died from the explosion or the firefights that followed. Samarra was the scene of the Feb. 22, 2006, bombing that destroyed a major Shi'ite shrine and triggered the wave of Sunni-Shi'ite reprisal attacks that has plunged this country into civil conflict. Also Sunday, American and Iraqi forces raided the Shi'ite neighbourhood of Sadr City in the capital, uncovering a weapons cache that included powerful roadside bombs that have been linked to Iran and a torture room, the military said. A US military spokesman, Major General William Caldwell, said the target was a Shi'ite extremist cell that was helping to smuggle explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, which are capable of piercing armoured vehicles. "Intelligence reports indicate that the secret cell had ties to a kidnapping network that conducts attacks within Iraq as well as interactions with rogue elements throughout Iraq and into Iran", he said. In one of the buildings they searched, the forces uncovered a large cache of weapons, including more than 150 mortar rounds, and a torture room with several sets of handcuffs and a mask, he said. Soldiers decided to destroy the building rather than risk moving the explosives and accidentally setting them off, he added.