Iraqi civilians inspect a damaged car after a bomb explosion Monday in Baghdad, Iraq. A bomb placed under a car exploded in downtown Baghdad, wounding three passengers and one bystander, police said.

Baghdad ? Three or more explosions Monday ripped through a busy shopping district in northern Baghdad’s Adhamiyah neighborhood, at killing at least 28 people and wounding at least 68.

North of Baghdad in Baqouba, a 13-year-old girl walked to a checkpoint of Sunni Muslim paramilitary members and detonated explosives. She killed herself and at least five others, including a leading member of the U.S.-backed paramilitary. At least 15 people were wounded.

The bombings indicated an increasing trend of violence across the country.

The U.S. military put the death toll for the Baghdad bombings at four, but witnesses said they saw dozens of dead bodies and a bus full of people on fire.

It was unclear whether three or four explosions ripped through the Adhamiyah shopping district, where professionals, laborers and students were eating breakfast before heading to work. Witnesses said they saw two car bombs followed by two roadside bombs, while police blamed a suicide bomber and two roadside bombs for the fatalities.

The blasts, which lasted 15 minutes, were timed to coincide with the breakfast rush at Abu Wael’s restaurant. Policemen, laborers, merchants and students were eating eggs, meat and potato patties and drinking tea to start their day. Many didn’t make it out of the restaurant.

A bus and its passengers burned in the street, which filled with flames and smoke. Witnesses said that only two passengers survived.

The Egyptian cook at Abu Wael’s, Shaaban, who was only one name, immigrated to Iraq more than 20 years ago and had worked at the restaurant for years. “What was he guilty of to deserve being killed?” asked Imad Kareem, a co-owner of the family-run restaurant. “He just worked to feed his family.”

When the bombs detonated, Kareem felt the floor shake under his feet, and the ceiling collapsed on him. He survived without a scratch.

The charred remnants of a car that witnesses say exploded sat next to the shell of the restaurant.

As Iraqis picked up the bodies from the street, the Iraqi government doled out cash to Sunni militiamen who’d been transferred to their authority last month from the U.S. military in Baghdad province.

Monday marked the first day that the Iraqi government paid the $300 monthly wage to the militiamen, formed with the help and funding of the U.S. military.