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The U.S. military said on Thursday (October 19) it was reviewing strategy in Baghdad where U.S. reinforcements have failed to halt spiralling violence, and that it was gravely concerned about mounting troop deaths. The battle for control of Baghdad, which U.S. officials say will decide Iraq's future, and a spate of attacks across Iraq on Thursday that killed at least 38 people piled pressure on U.S. President George W. Bush before November mid-term elections. Thursday brought a spate of attacks in Iraq. A car bomb in Kirkuk killed at least eight people in an attack aimed at an Iraqi army patrol. In Khalis, a roadside bomb ripped through a busy market, killing 10 people and wounding 20. Bush, whose Republicans are battling to retain control of the U.S. Congress, said he saw a possible parallel in the rise in violence in Iraq and the 1968 Tet offensive that triggered a drop in support among Americans for the Vietnam war. Bush said al Qaeda was very active in Iraq and that it was trying to foment sectarian violence as well as kill U.S. troops. A spokesman said the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, had ordered a review of strategy in Baghdad, widely seen as crucial to bringing enough stability to Iraq to allow U.S. troops to eventually leave the country. U.S. Major General William Caldwell said the number of attacks targeting security forces in Baghdad had risen since U.S. troops launched a crackdown designed to end sectarian violence that has been killing dozens of people every day. "I think we are getting far beyond my realm to make analogies about the Vietnam war. But I will tell you, that we are very concerned about what we're seeing in the city and we're taking a lot of time to go back and look at the Baghdad security plan. We are asking ourselves, if the conditions under which it was first devised still exist today, or have the conditions changed, and therefore modification to that plan need to be made. We are never going to, everything stays very dynamic in this type of environment. And it is clear that the conditions under which we started, are not the same as today and so it does require some modification to the plan. And there is an intense about of discussion and briefings that are being at both the government of Iraq level and our level to specifically address these facets," Major General William Caldwell said. Two blasts in eastern Baghdad on Thursday killed a civilian and wounding eight people, five of them were policemen, police and interior Ministry said. The first blast was caused by a car bomb targeting a police patrol and minutes later when crowd gathering in the area od blast a bomb exploded next to them, police added. Earlier, two bombs exploded in central Baghdad, wounding three civilians, police said. At least another two bombs exploded next to a convoy of trucks carrying cars and other supplies to the U.S. military, north of Baghdad, police said. Police said the driver was killed in the attack near the road that leads to the town of Baiji, 200 km (125 miles) north of Baghdad. The trucks were left burning on a bridge west of Baghdad as black smoke billowed from them. The US forces in the city did not give an immediate report on the attack. Baiji, site of a major oil refinery, has seen a surge in violence over the past days. October is on track to become one of the deadliest for U.S. forces since a massive offensive in Falluja two years ago. The rise, ahead of key U.S. congressional elections next month in which plummeting support for the war has become a major issue, has been blamed on more aggressive patrols in Baghdad, where U.S. troops have conducted raids to stamp out militias. In Mosul, six suicide bombers including one in a fuel truck blew themselves up near police stations and U.S. patrols, and insurgents fired mortar bombs and clashed with police in violence that claimed at least 20 lives and wounded dozens. U.S. commanders have blamed the rise in U.S. casualties in Baghdad in more perilous patrolling by U.S. forces trying to defeat sectarian militias and Sunni Arab insurgents opposed to the Shi'ite-led government. . The U.S. troop death toll rose to 72 on Thursday, a figure that could turn October into one of the deadliest months for U.S. forces since a massive offensive in Falluja two years ago. Dozens of al Qaeda-linked gunmen took to the streets in Ramadi on Wednesday (October 18) in a show of force to announce the city was joining an Islamic state comprising Iraq's mostly Sunni Arab provinces, Islamists and witnesses said. Witnesses in Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province, said gunmen dressed in white marched through the city as mosques' loudspeakers announced the statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, a Sunni militant group led by al Qaeda in Iraq. Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is under mounting pressure to rein in militias blamed for most sectarian killings but they are tied to political parties he is dependent on. With signs of growing U.S. impatience over his inaction to curb militias, Maliki sought during a recent conversation with President George W. Bush assurances that Washington would not set a timetable for him to improve security.