An Iraqi woman walks past U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in central Baghdad. A car bomb Thursday near Baghdad University killed eight people and wounded 19. Violence continues throughout the capital despite a surge of U.S. troops.

Baghdad, Iraq ? Bombers struck an Iraqi army post northeast of Baghdad and civilian targets in the city as violence across Iraq killed at least 72 people Thursday, including the bullet-riddled bodies of 27 men dumped in the capital – apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

Still, the top American military spokesman insisted the U.S. command felt “very comfortable” that it is making “steady progress” in restoring order in Baghdad.

“We are seeing those initial signs of progress being made,” Maj. Gen. William C. Caldwell said.

The violence came as the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate adopted House-passed legislation calling for U.S. troops to begin leaving Iraq by Oct. 1. President Bush pledged to veto the measure, and neither body passed the measure with enough votes to override a veto.

Iraqi government spokes-man Ali al-Dabbagh said Oct. 1 was too soon for a withdrawal to start and criticized the Senate vote, saying it “sends wrong signals” to armed militants.

The deadliest attack occurred about 9 a.m. when a suicide car bomber killed 10 Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in Khalis, a longtime flashpoint city about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Ten other soldiers and five civilians were wounded, police said.

The city is in Diyala province, which has seen some of Iraq’s worst violence recently. Mostly Sunni Arab insurgents are thought to have fled to the area to escape the security crackdown in Baghdad that U.S. and Iraqi troops launched Feb. 14.

In the capital, a car bomb exploded near Baghdad University, killing eight civilians and wounding 19, including some students, police said.

Ahmed Jassim, who works in a nearby hotel, said he rushed outside after hearing the explosion and helped carry the wounded to ambulances.

“The insurgents were surely targeting civilians because there was no military presence in the area,” he said. “I saw small pieces of flesh and a small blood pool.”

Four other civilians were killed and nine wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a market in central Baghdad, police said. The blast missed its intended target – a passing police patrol.

In the city’s sprawling Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Sadr City, U.S. troops killed three militants during a gunbattle, the military said. Later in the day, a funeral procession was held in the district for an Iraqi who residents said was killed in the fighting.

Two suicide bombers attacked an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

The blasts killed three security guards and wounded five, police said. Casualties could have been worse if guards had not opened fire on the two attackers, forcing them to detonate their explosives at least 50 yards from the office, police said.

In other violence, four insurgents were killed as the U.S. targeted suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants near Taji, a U.S. air base 12 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.