Bombs Kills 3 U.S. Soldiers, At Least 20 Iraqis

The three attacks also killed at least 20 Iraqis, including seven members of a U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitary group in Kirkuk that fights al-Qaida and three recruits inside a police station in Baghdad.

The bombings come just a day after 40 people died and more than 80 people were wounded when a powerful bomb ripped through a mostly Shiite neighborhood in northwestern Baghdad. That incident was the first major car-bombing in the capital since May 6, when a bombing at a market killed 15 people.

Violence in Iraq had been down for the month of May after a bloody April, when at least 355 Iraqis and 18 U.S. soldiers died.

The Iraqi government and the U.S. military have said the recent attacks are not as sophisticated as they once were and are isolated incidents that do not undermine security gains.

While nowhere near the peaks of the sectarian violence of 2006 and 2007, when the average monthly death toll for civilians was well over 2,000, the death tolls last month were the highest of the year, with Iraqi deaths increasing by some 40 percent over March.

The Kirkuk blast Thursday targeted members of a local Awakening Council, a Sunni paramilitary with U.S. support that fights al-Qaida. The suicide bomber dressed in the group's uniform, attacked fighters as they were lined up to collect their salaries, the BBC reported.

The attacks in Baghdad targeted both a U.S. patrol and a police station. The attack in western Baghdad's al-Mamoun police station claimed the lives of three policemen and injured 19 people, including eight civilians. Police said the bomb was planted inside a garbage container - the first time an explosive had gone off inside a police station.