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Suicide bombers kill scores in 2 Iraqi cities

Shiite mosques targeted near Iranian border; Baghdad hotel hit

Iraqi firefighters carry away a man injured in twin car bombings Friday in Baghdad.

• Iraqi official defends facility

• Pullout call spurs war of words

• White phosphorous use probed

SPECIAL REPORT

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• Interactive: Sectarian divide

• Timeline: Bloodiest days for civilians

• Coalition Casualties

• Special Report

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As debate raged in Washington about the U.S. military in Iraq, suicide bombings killed scores of people Friday in the eastern Iraqi town of Khanaqin near the Iranian border and in Baghdad.

The Khanaqin carnage occurred when two suicide bombers detonated near or inside two Shiite Muslim mosques, Iraqi police said.

At least 90 people were killed in the attacks, according to hospital officials. The U.S. military said more than 150 Iraqi civilians were killed or wounded in the attack, without giving a breakdown.

The Khanaqin town mayor said many children were among the dead because fathers had brought their sons to the prayer service.

The force of the explosions destroyed both mosques, according to the U.S. military and video from the scene.

Also Friday, two suicide car bombings in Baghdad killed at least six people near a hotel, police said. (Watch security camera video of suicide car bomb -- :30)

The hotel sits adjacent to Iraq's Interior Ministry compound, where about 170 detainees were found last weekend, some with signs of torture, according to Iraqi officials. There were no reports of damage to the compound, and the U.S. military said the hotel was the target of the attack.

The suicide attacks in Khanaqin took place around midday when the mosques likely were full of worshippers for afternoon prayers. Many victims may be children, the mayor said, because fathers had brought their sons to the prayer service.

The American military said it is sending troops to investigate.

Khanaqin is a Shiite-Kurdish town about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Baquba.

Market bombing

On Saturday, a car bomb detonated in a market in the Diyala Bridge area of southeast Baghdad on Saturday, killing six people and wounding 10, according to initial reports, Iraqi emergency police said.

The predominantly poor Shiite area is near a bridge over the Diyala River connecting Baghdad with Diyala province.

The explosion occurred about 10:30 a.m. (0730 GMT). It was unclear whether the bombing was a suicide attack.

Other developments

Three civilians were injured Friday when a car bomb targeting a U.S.-led coalition forces convoy detonated in Kan'an, east of Baquba, an official at the Baquba Joint Communications Center said.

U.S.-led fighting to drive insurgents from the western Iraqi town of Ubaydi has been the toughest so far of the military offensive called Operation Steel Curtain, an American commander said Thursday. More than 200 suspected insurgents have been killed since the offensive's November 5 launch, including 89 in Ubaydi, said Col. Stephen Davis.

A doctor and head of a Baghdad hospital was shot dead Thursday inside his clinic in the Abu Ghraib district of western Baghdad, said an Iraqi police official with Baghdad emergency police. Four gunmen stormed Dr. Kadhim Abbood Alwash's clinic and shot him to death, said Qassim Allawi, a Health Ministry official. Alwash was head of Karama General Hospital in Baghdad.

Two U.S. soldiers died Thursday in separate vehicle accidents in Iraq, the U.S. military said. One died in an accident south of an oil refinery about 125 miles (202 kilometers) north of Baghdad and a second soldier died in an accident during a combat logistics patrol north of Tal Afar, the military said. According to U.S. military reports, 2,082 American troops have died in the Iraq war.

Iraq has launched an investigation into allegations -- which the Pentagon denies -- that U.S. soldiers aimed artillery rounds of flammable white phosphorous at civilians. (Full story)

CNN's Dana Bash, Arwa Damon, Enes Dulami and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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