BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil, killing one person and wounding scores including several Americans, the US military said on Wednesday.
The blast occurred in Arbil in largely Kurdish northern Iraq, which has been much quieter than the rest of the country since
US-led troops toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein five months ago.
"We can confirm one Iraqi dead and 41 Iraqis wounded. Several US Department of Defense personnel were also wounded," US Army Staff Sergeant Shane Slaughter told Reuters in London by telephone from Baghdad, 220 miles south of Arbil.
Earlier, a television channel in neighbouring Turkey reported that the explosion had taken place outside a US military office. Slaughter could not confirm this, saying only that the blast occurred near "the state house in Arbil."
US-led forces have come under attack almost every day since they ousted Saddam.
US officials mostly blame Saddam loyalists for the attacks and a spate of bombings in recent weeks that hit the United Nations headquarters and the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and killed a leading Shi'ite Muslim cleric in the holy city of Najaf.
- REUTERS
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