(PTI): An Iraqi Friday prayers leader has accused the American forces of being behind the recent terrorist attacks in the cities of Baghdad and Kirkuk.

Just days before the day the US combat forces have to withdraw from the Iraqi cities on June 30, two huge bombs exploded in the Iraqi capital city on Friday and near the oil city of Kirkuk on Saturday.

On Friday, at least fifteen people were killed and 46 others sustained injuries in central Baghdad as a bomb-rigged motorcycle detonated at about 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT),

At least 80 people were killed and more than 200 others were wounded in a Saturday truck bombing in the Turkmen town of Taza Kharmatu, about 30 km (20 miles) south of the northern oil hub of Kirkuk.

“The occupying forces lead the Baathist forces and Takfiri groups to carry out the terrorist attacks (In Iraq),” said Basra’s Friday prayers leader Sheikh Hani Mottiri.

Meanwhile, Chief of the Basra’s society of teachers said that the US forces play a key role in the terrorist attacks in Iraq, adding that the US does not want a powerful rule in Iraq to provide security in the country.

The violence in Iraq has escalated after the country experienced a period of relative calm in late 2008 and early 2009 after more than six years of chaos resulting from the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.