Car bombs kill 12 in Baghdad

FE Team | Published: July 24, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

BAGHDAD July 23 (AF): Three parked cars exploded within 30 minutes in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 12 people, police said, the deadliest in a series of bombings and shooting attacks nationwide. Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, meanwhile, confirmed that the United States and Iran will discuss the security situation in Iraq on Tuesday in Baghdad, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
"The composition of the negotiating teams will include ambassadors of Iran and America in Baghdad, as head of the two teams, with observance of Iraqi officials," IRNA quoted Hasan Kazemi Qomi as saying Monday.
Two of the blasts in the Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah struck nearly simultaneously.
One targeted a passing police patrol, killing three officers and three pedestrians and wounding nine other people, a police officer said, adding that at least seven cars also were damaged in the blast, which struck near to the Interior Ministry's nationality and social affairs directorate and the 14th of July bridge, he added.
Another parked car bomb about 500 yards away struck at about the same time, ripping through a bustling market of vegetables and household goods, killing three civilians and wounding five others, the policeman added.
AP Television News footage showed U.S. soldiers milling about the charred wreckage, with shattered glass and blackened debris from nearby shops and street stalls strewn on the bloodstained pavement.
Another car packed with explosives struck a police patrol in Elwiyah square at about 11:30 a.m. in another part of Karradah, killing two policemen and a civilian and wounding five people, police said.
Karradah, a popular shopping area, has been hit by several high-profile bombings, and Monday's attack occurred despite a 5-month-old U.S.-Iraqi security operation aimed at stopping such violence in the capital.
Another car packed with explosives blew up on the main road about 200 yards from an entry point to the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, killing at least four Iraqis and wounding seven, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. The heavily fortified Green Zone is home to the U.S. and British embassies as well as Iraqi government offices and thousands of American troops and contractors.
Elsewhere in the capital, a bomb exploded on a minibus near a busy commercial area, killing one person and wounding nine others, police said.
A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol about 75 miles east of Baghdad, near the Iranian border, killing five troops, according to police and morgue officials. The explosion occurred on the southeastern edge of the volatile Diyala province.