BAGHDAD, July 15: Twelve suicide car bombers exploded in a series of apparently coordinated attacks across the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing 28 people and wounding more than 100.

All appeared to target US or Iraqi security forces, police said. Journalists saw the aftermath of five. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for those, before police reported a further five suicide car bomb attacks late in the day.

They followed an abortive triple suicide attack on Baghdad’s government compound on Thursday and a strike close to a US patrol that killed 27, many of them children, a day earlier.

On Friday streets are generally quieter, which may have held down the casualty toll.

Suicide attacks have increased sharply since a US-backed government took power in April.

US generals have said the situation is improving. But the 10 suicide car bombs in Baghdad on one day alone compared to just six countrywide for the entire previous week — a figure a US spokesman had annnounced as the lowest in 11 weeks.

Three American soldiers were hurt but none killed, U.S. military spokesman Lt Jamie Davis said.

“Dead and mangled bodies of women and children is what terrorism stands for,” said Col Joseph DiSalvo, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad’s eastern half, in a statement.

CAR SPLIT IN TWO: Firefighters doused the flames near one blast site which targeted Iraqi troops in the north of the city, where several cars were destroyed and bloodsoaked survivors argued with police.—Reuters