String of deadly explosions hit Baghdad

At least 10 people have been killed and 21 others wounded after three blasts hit a western Baghdad neighborhood, police and hospital sources say.   The first explosion came from a roadside bomb, targeting an Iraqi army patrol, a police official said on Monday. Minutes later, a second bomb exploded nearby, targeting a passing police patrol. As firefighters arrived at the scene of the first blast, a third bomb went off, an official said. The blasts hit the mainly Shia Washash neighborhood in the capital. Violence is nowhere near the peaks seen in 2006 and 2007, but bombings and shootings still occur with regularity. As US forces prepare to go home by the end of this year, security will rest in the hands of the Iraqi security forces. Some US and Iraqi officials would like to see US forces stay in Iraq into next year to help maintain the fragile stability and train Iraqi troops. Disagreements over whether to grant the Americans the type of legal protections they are demanding have threatened to derail any plans to have US troops in Iraq past their December 31 departure date.