By Sameer N. YacoubAssociated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Mortar shells rained down Sunday on a girls' secondary school in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 21, witnesses and police said. At least seven other people died in bombings and shootings across the capital, in primarily Shiite areas.
Sunday's mortar attack occurred at the Kholoud Secondary School in the Adil neighborhood of western Baghdad. Several projectiles exploded in the courtyard of the school, shattering windows and spraying pupils with shards of glass. Blood smeared the stone steps and walkways. Hours after the attack, grieving parents wept as girls' bodies were placed inside wooden coffins. Police said four girls were killed instantly and a fifth died later of her wounds.
The area has been the scene of reprisal attacks by Sunni and Shiite extremists that have persisted as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers prepare for a massive security crackdown. A Sunni group, the General Conference of the People of Iraq, accused Shiite militias and said the markings on the mortars indicated they were manufactured in Iran.
Elsewhere, a bomb exploded about 7:30 a.m. in a minibus carrying passengers to a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, killing one and wounding five, police said. The explosive was hidden in a bag left by a passenger who left the bus before it detonated. The bus was heading to the Shiite district of Sadr City, which has been targeted several times in the past.
A parked car bomb exploded in an intersection near an outdoor market in the Sadr City district about five hours later, killing at least four people, two of them women, and wounding 39, police said. The sprawling Shiite slum is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army that is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and has blamed for much of the country's violence.
About five minutes later, a bomb hidden in a bag exploded in an outdoor market in the Baiyaa neighborhood in western Baghdad, another mostly Shiite area. At least two people were killed and 17 wounded, including two children, police said.
Outside the capital, a car bomb exploded near a mosque in the Sunni city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four, police said.
Also Sunday, drive-by shooters killed a high-ranking Shiite official at the Iraqi industry and mines ministry, along with his 27-year-old daughter and two other people. Insurgents have frequently targeted high-ranking Iraqi officials who are seen as collaborators with the U.S. forces.