BAGHDAD, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Another suicide car bomb struck a security checkpoint in western Baghdad on Thursday, killing a soldier and wounding a civilian, an Interior Ministry source said.  

    "A suicide car bomb went off near a security an Iraqi army checkpoint near the Qahtan Square in the Yarmouk district, killing a soldier and wounding a civilian," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Only half hour earlier, a suicide car bomb detonated at a joint Iraqi army and police checkpoint near the Kahramanah Square in Karradah neighborhood in central Baghdad, killing at least two security members and wounding two others, the source said.  

    The death toll could rise as the checkpoint was crowded with civilian cars at the time of the attack, he added.

    Violence persists in Baghdad despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers across the capital in a major security crackdown aimed at curbing insurgency and sectarian violence in the war-torn country.