Four killed, 20 wounded in Baghdad car blast

9.30pm

BAGHDAD - A car blew up in a busy northern Baghdad neighbourhood on Wednesday killing at least four people and wounding about 20, police at the scene said.

A Reuters cameraman saw the burnt-out shell of a car on the street in the Aadamiya district, a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood, and pools of blood on the tarmac. Several of the wounded were still lying stunned on the ground at least 15 minutes after the explosion.

It was not immediately clear if the car had been used as a bomb itself or if a roadside bomb had exploded next to it.

The blast occurred in a busy street packed with pedestrians and workers, police officer Ali al-Raiby told reporters.

A Reuters cameraman filmed several dead being brought into a nearby hospital and staff said the bodies had come from the site of the blast.

A series of car bombs have detonated in Baghdad in recent days, in the build-up to Tuesday's naming of a government to take over from the US-led authorities on June 30.

On Tuesday, a suspected car bomb blew up outside the offices of a Kurdish political party in central Baghdad, killing at least three people and wounding 20. Another car bomb attack north of Baghdad killed at least 11 Iraqis.

Last month the head of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed in car bomb blast at an entrance to the headquarters of the US-led administration in Baghdad, known as the Green Zone.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq