BAGHDAD, Iraq — At least 30 are dead and dozens wounded after a car bomb tore through a market in a neighbourhood on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad on Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks in Iraq.

Interior Ministry police Maj. Falah al-Mhamadawi attributed the blast to an explosives-packed vehicle parked in front of fruit and vegetable stands in the market at Nahrawan, an impoverished suburb heavily populated by Shiites.

Correspondents on the scene reported the explosion ripped through the market at a busy time of day, as people were doing their evening shopping.

Meanwhile near Abu Ghraib prison, a suicide car bomb destroyed three vehicles in an American convoy and insurgents fired seven mortar shells at the jail.

The U.S. military did not issue any immediate casualty reports.

In the northern city of Mosul, coalition forces announced the arrest of two men suspected to be leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul, the country's third-largest city.

The two men are identified as Taha Ibrahim Yasin Becher, whose alias was Abu Fatima, and Hamed Saeed Ismael Mustafa, also known as Abu Shahed. A statement said the arrests took place Sept. 5.

In other developments:

• In Baghdad, police found the handcuffed bodies of three unidentified men dumped near a mosque.
• Armed militants in western Baghdad attacked a convoy of four trucks carrying food for the U.S. military. Two Sudanese drivers were killed, police and hospital sources said.
• Police in Samarra, north of Baghdad, said they found the body of an Iraqi contractor who worked for the U.S. military. The man was handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head, police said.
• In Qaim, near the Syrian border, U.S. jets reportedly bombed two houses overnight, killing one civilian and injuring another, in an area that has been the target of repeated airstrikes in recent weeks. The U.S. military has said it is trying to secure a major penetration route for guerrillas and foreign fighters.
• In Baqouba, one man was killed and six were injured when a suicide bomber drove his car into an Iraqi army patrol.

More than 200 people have been killed in Iraq in an upsurge of violence over the past four days.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have attributed the increase to efforts by the insurgents to derail the democratic process ahead of the constitutional referendum scheduled for Oct. 15

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, has reportedly said the recent surge in violence is in retaliation for a coalition offensive against the group's stronghold in the northern city of Tal Afar.