Six bombs exploded in predominantly Shiite sections of the capital Sunday, killing at least 45 people in a renewal of sectarian carnage that set back the U.S. push to pacify Baghdad.

North of Baghdad, two British helicopters crashed after an apparent mid-air collision, killing two service members, U.K. officials said.

The U.S. military announced three U.S. troop deaths - two soldiers and a Marine killed in separate incidents.

And in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, health officials raised the toll from a bombing Saturday close to one of the sect’s most sacred shrines, saying 47 people were killed and 224 wounded.

Twin car bombs exploded minutes apart in the busy market of Baghdad’s Shurta Rabia neighborhood, a mostly Shiite area in the city’s west. The first blast went off at midmorning in front of a kebab restaurant. Five minutes later, another car exploded nearby as rescuers were evacuating victims. Many women and children were among the casualties, police said.

Shortly after noon, a suicide bomber blew himself up on a minibus near a courthouse in the mainly Shiite northwest Baghdad neighborhood of al-Utafiyah, killing at least eight people and wounding 11, officials said.

Many of the victims were severely burned, an official at the Khazimiyah Hospital said.

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