Baghdad, Iraq ? Villagers found three decapitated bodies north of Baghdad on Wednesday and a car bomb killed two people at an Iraqi military checkpoint south of the capital in attacks that appear to be increasingly targeting Iraqis rather than the United States and its multinational force allies.

The bodies were found in nylon bags, the heads in bags alongside them, near Dijiel, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, said Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman of the Interior Ministry.

A U.S. military official said the bodies appeared to be Iraqis and had their hands tied behind their backs.

While insurgents often have beheaded foreign hostages in their fight against the government and coalition forces, it is not a tactic usually used against Iraqis, who more often are abducted for money.

Meanwhile, militants released a Turkish man identified as Aytulla Gezmen, an Arabic language translator who was taken hostage in late July, according to a videotape obtained by Associated Press Television News. The Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed he had been freed.

A group calling itself The Shura Council of the Mujahedeen said in a separate video Tuesday that it was freeing Gezmen after he converted to Islam and repented working for the Americans.

The developments follow a surge in violence that has killed more than 200 people in the past four days in a brazen and coordinated campaign focused increasingly on the capital — the center of authority for Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and his American allies.

Guerrillas bombed a Baghdad shopping street full of police recruits and fired on a police van north of the capital Tuesday, killing at least 59 people.

The latest car bomb targeted a national guard checkpoint in Suwayrah, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, Abdul-Rahman said. One guardsman was among the two dead; 10 civilians were wounded.

A police patrol in Baqouba, northeast of the capital, was also hit Wednesday by an explosive device that wounded four policemen and a civilian, said police Lt. Feras Ali.