Basra car bomb kills 16, wounds 20

BASRA, Iraq - A car bomb shattered the relative peace of the southern Iraqi city of Basra after dark on Wednesday, killing 16 people and wounding 20 in a district packed with restaurants, an Interior Ministry official said.

At least two children were among the dead carried away by rescuers from the popular Sayed restaurant. Police said a pick-up truck had exploded outside it. They found no evidence of a suicide attacker, they added.

The late evening blast was a shock for the mainly Shi'ite southern city, which has been relatively calm compared to regions further north that are ravaged by an insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government by minority Sunni Arabs.

"It appears to have been a large vehicle bomb explosion in the centre of Basra," said a spokesman for the British armed forces that patrol the city.

Though there have been tensions among rival Shi'ite militias and between armed groups and British-led occupying troops in the Basra region, major attacks on civilians of the sort associated with Sunni Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda have been relatively rare.

Early on Wednesday, four US security guards died when a bomb hit their sports utility vehicle near Basra, the US embassy said in a statement.

All four worked for a private security firm supporting the regional US embassy office in Basra, it said, adding that no British or US troops were involved in the incident.

Al Qaeda in Iraq later claimed responsibility for that attack in an internet statement.

A State Department spokesman said the United States was saddened by the death of four contractors and would work hard with the Iraqi government to hold those accountable "for this terrorist act".

"Our thoughts and our prayers are with the families. It's a terrible incident," he said.

On April 21, 2004, suicide bombers killed 73 people, including 17 children, in co-ordinated blasts at three police stations in Basra and at the police academy in nearby Zubeir.

- REUTERS