Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A total of three people were killed and some 24 others wounded in separate bomb attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, while mortar rounds struck Baghdad heavily fortified Green Zone, an Interior Ministry source said.

    A car bomb parked at a road in the suburb of Madain, south of Baghdad, detonated near an Iraqi Army patrol and damaged a military vehicle, killing one soldier and wounding five others aboard, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    In separate incident, three more soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb struck a joint U.S. and Iraqi Army patrol in the neighborhood of Kadhimiyah in the capital's north, the source said.

    Another roadside bomb explosion struck a convoy of sport utility vehicles (SUV), usually used by foreign security firms, in the Amil neighborhood in southern Baghdad, according to the source.

    Two people in the SUV convoy and two bystanders were wounded by the blast, he said.

    Meanwhile, three mortar rounds landed on Baghdad's U.S.-guarded Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government offices and many foreign embassies, including the U.S. and British ones, the source said.

    It was unclear about the casualties caused by the mortar barrage, he said. The U.S. military has no immediate comment about the incident.

    Earlier, the source said that two people were killed and 10 others wounded in a bomb explosion near a crowd of people outside the building of the Rafidain Bank in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Kamaliyah.

    Also in the day, a roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi Army patrol near a passport office in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Zaiyounah, wounding two soldiers, the source earlier said.

    Sporadic attacks continue in Iraq despite the U.S. and Iraqi officials announced a relative lull in violence during the past months.