Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud/Reuters

Residents pleaded for help on Thursday as they tried to escape a building set ablaze in a car bombing in Karada, a Shiite section of Baghdad.

Bomb Kills 25 in Baghdad After U.S. Cites Security Success

BAGHDAD, July 26 — A car bomb killed 25 people in a Shiite area of the city during the evening rush hour on Thursday, wounding dozens of shoppers, destroying stores and leaving a pall of smoke hanging over the center of the city.

The attack occurred hours after Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the second-ranking American commander in Iraq, claimed "significant success" for recent security operations in Baghdad and Diyala Province.

General Odierno, who runs day-to-day military operations in Iraq, also accused Iran of being involved in recent deadly attacks on Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, which is regularly hit by rocket and mortar fire from across the Tigris River.

"We have seen in the last three months a significant improvement in the capability of mortarmen and rocketeers to provide accurate fire into the Green Zone and other places," he said in Baghdad.

"We think this is directly related to training that was conducted in Iran," he said. "So we continue to go after these networks with the Iraqi security forces. This is not done independently by U.S. or coalition forces. This is done in conjunction with Iraqi security forces. And we continue to attack those networks, and we will continue to do so" until the weapons are stopped.

On July 10, a barrage killed three people in the Green Zone and wounded 18. The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of arming, supporting and training militias in Iraq. Iran has consistently denied the accusations.

General Odierno said that American casualties in Iraq had declined recently, after a peak in May. But he said he could not yet judge the significance of the drop.

"It is an initial positive sign, but I would argue I need a bit more time to make an assessment of whether it is a true trend or not," he said.

The American military on Thursday announced five more American deaths in Diyala and Baghdad.

In the car bombing, in the Karada area of Baghdad, nine cars were destroyed and a three-story building was set on fire, the police said. It was the deadliest of several attacks on Thursday.

In Kirkuk, a northern city, a car exploded near a restaurant, killing at least six civilians and wounding 25, said Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir, of the police.

A suicide bomber also killed seven people, most of them policemen, at the gate of a police station west of Mosul, said Brig. Gen. Muhammad al-Waqaa, of the police.

Bombers also attacked Mosul's main soccer stadium, in what appeared to be a warning to the people who celebrated the Iraqi soccer team's victory on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Asian Cup. No one was in the stands. A room used by broadcasters, journalists and officials was damaged.