Wave of bombings kills 40 in Iraq

Dozier, 39, was critically injured, and six US soldiers from the patrol with which she was traveling also were hurt in the midmorning blast in central Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood, just one of a surge of bombings that ripped across the capital and its surrounding provinces, killing at least 40 people.

CBS said the dead crew members were Paul Douglas, 48, a cameraman, and James Brolan, 42, a sound man. Based in London and veterans of many wars, they were embedded with Dozier at the time of the attack with soldiers from the Fourth Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division in Baghdad, according to a statement issued by the network.

Dozier, who has been reporting from Iraq for the past three years, was in critical condition at a US military hospital in Baghdad's green zone. She was undergoing her second surgery early today , a CBS spokeswoman said.

``Doctors are cautiously optimistic about her prognosis," the network statement said yesterday.

The CBS team had set out with US soldiers early yesterday to gather an eyewitness account of the everyday activities of US and Iraqi troops on the fourth Memorial Day in Iraq since the war began, said Major Mark Cheadle, a spokesman for the Fourth Brigade .

``They wanted to know what we did to commemorate Memorial Day," Cheadle said. ``Essentially what we do is continue the mission, because every day is a little bit of a Memorial Day for us."

The three were traveling in an armored Humvee but exited their vehicle when US troops got out to inspect a checkpoint, according to an account posted on the CBS website. Just as they disembarked, at about 10:30 a.m., a nearby car packed with explosives detonated, killing the four people and setting ablaze one of the Humvees in the convoy.

The military did not name the US soldier killed in the attack, the 2,466th since the war began, according to Defense Department figures.

It was not clear whether the car bomb was intended to hit the US patrol or was just one of the string of bombings across Baghdad yesterday, including three others in Karradah, a Shi'ite neighborhood that is bombed fairly regularly.

Karradah is one of Baghdad's calmest districts, however, and US soldiers rarely are attacked there, Cheadle said.

Yesterday's two deaths brought to 71 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion, the overwhelming majority of them Iraqis.

The CBS team was the second US television news crew to be struck by a bombing while embedded with American forces this year. In January, ABC ``World News Tonight" co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously injured when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Taji, just north of Baghdad.

``This is a devastating loss for CBS News," Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, said in a statement. ``Kimberly, Paul, and James were veterans of war coverage who proved their bravery and dedication every single day."

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad also paid tribute to the crew.

``These brave journalists risked their lives to tell the world the story of a courageous people and a proud nation," he said. ``That story must and will be told."

The attack serves as a reminder of the perils confronting soldiers and journalists alike whenever they venture out in Iraq, said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Withington, spokesman for the multinational force in Baghdad.

``US soldiers are going out every day and journalists are going out every day to cover them, and there are inherent risks in that," he said. ``The terrorists don't care who they kill or injure."

The attacks rolled across Baghdad starting shortly after dawn, targeting civilians and security forces and Sunni and Shi'ite neighborhoods in eastern and western Baghdad.

Two car bombs killed 17 people in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah, and a device planted under a minibus just across the river in the Shi'ite neighborhood of Kadhamiyah killed seven, police said. Three other explosions in Karradah killed at least five people, and a bombing on the eastern edge of the city killed one person traveling in a minibus.

In the deadliest single attack, 14 Iraqi civilians employed on a base used by the Iranian opposition group People's Mujahedeen of Iran were killed when a bomb targeted the bus carrying them to work in Khalis, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. Also, police said they found the bodies of 10 men who had been shot in the head and dumped in garbage in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, a police spokesman said.

The escalation in violence comes as Iraq's new government remains paralyzed by bitter infighting over whom to appoint to head the crucial Interior and Defense Ministries. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had promised he would name the ministers by last weekend, but Sunnis and Shi'ites still are unable to agree on candidates, meaning the two ministries with responsibility for bringing security to Iraq remain leaderless.