At least three car bombs and several roadside bombs hit U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk on Sunday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens more, Iraqi police said, according to Reuters. The U.S. military death toll in Iraq is approaching the psychological landmark of 2,000, focusing attention on the security situation more than 2-1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion. The toll stood at 1,996 on Sunday afternoon. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was determined to face down the insurgency and build Iraq into a stable, democratic ally. "It is absolutely the case that you have evil men, violent men, who seem determined to try to throw this off course. But they haven't been able to," she told BBC television in an interview. In the first of Sunday's attacks, a car bomb killed four people, including two police officers, when it exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in central Baghdad. The blast also injured 14 others, both police and civilians. --More 2220 Local Time 1920 GMT
