29 killed in Baghdad bombings

Baghdad: At least 29 people were killed - including two British soldiers and one Iraqi policeman - and many others wounded in attacks in and around Baghdad over the weekend, officials said.

Meanwhile, six Shiite shrines have been destroyed in explosions outside the country's capital in another surge of sectarian violence, officials said.

Fourteen people were killed and at least six people were wounded Sunday when suicide bombers detonated two vehicles packed with explosives near a US military base near Baghdad international airport, according to a statement from the Multi-National Division.

The terrorists were targeting Iraqis congregated in a parking lot next to the Victory Base Complex in western Baghdad, the military said.

In Baghdad's Palestine street, five civilians were killed and eight people were wounded, including one policeman, in a roadside bomb explosion that was targeting an Iraqi police patrol, the official added.

In southeast Baghdad's Jisr Diyala district, a roadside bomb exploded in a crowded marketplace killing three people and wounding 15 others, an official with Zafaraniya police station told CNN.

The Iraqi policeman was killed and five civilians were wounded Sunday when a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police patrol in northern Baghdad's al-Mughrab street, according to an official with Iraq's interior ministry.

Another roadside bomb, this time targeting an Iraqi police commando patrol, exploded and wounded seven civilians in Tayaran Square in the capital's center, the official said. The blast missed the commando patrol, the official added.

Two bakers were killed on Sunday in the Saydiya neighborhood in northwestern Baghdad when gunmen opened fire on a bakery, the official said. Two others were wounded in the attack.

A British military source told CNN that two British soldiers were killed Saturday in Basra when a roadside bomb exploded just north of that city. One British soldier was wounded in that attack, the source said.

About 50 miles north of Baghdad, two guards for the country's foreign ministry were killed Sunday in a roadside bomb explosion as they returned to the capital, a source at the foreign ministry said.

The guards were traveling alone and the foreign minister was not with them, the source said.

Outside Baghdad, Kirkuk's police chief told CNN that five Iraqi policemen were wounded on Sunday when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in the Wathik neighborhood in southern part of the oil-rich city. Kirkuk is about 150 miles north of Baghdad.

Shrines destroyed

And an official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center told CNN that gunmen planted bombs around four Shiite shrines in Wajihiya, about 8 miles southeast of Baquba on Saturday night.

The shrines destroyed were the Imam Jaber Bin Ali al-Hadi Shiite shrine, the Imam Abdullah Bin Ali al-Hadi shrine, the Shimiyar shrine and Imam Abu Habib shrine.

In Balad Ruz, east of Baquba, a Shiite shrine called the Fityan shrine was blown up late Saturday when bombs planted by gunmen exploded, the official said.

In Kanan, about 6 miles east of Baquba, the Tamim Shiite shrine was destroyed by bombs planted by gunmen on Saturday morning, the official said.

No one was hurt in the shrine explosions, the official said.

A February 22 attack on the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, the third holiest Shiite Islam shrine in Iraq, sparked sectarian violence in Iraq that claimed more than 1,000 lives in Baghdad in April alone.

The latest attacks come as the country's new parliament meets Sunday. Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki must present his list of cabinet ministers in eight days.