26 killed, two dozen injured in Iraq
Saturday, 7 July 2007
BAGHDAD, July 6 (AFP): A car bomb ripped through guests at a wedding party in southern Baghdad Thursday, killing 17 people and wounding the bride and groom, security and defence officials said Thursday.
The blast erupted outside a photographer's studio in Abu Tchir, a mainly Shiite district surrounded by restive Sunni suburbs and agricultural small holdings on the southern outskirts of the war-torn Iraqi capital.
More than two dozen people were injured, the officials said.
Local resident Ali Hussein, who rushed to the scene after the blast, said the wedding party had stopped at the Adel Photo Studio for pictures to be taken when a suicide car bomber collided with their convoy.
"I saw two minibuses completely burned out with bodies still inside them. People said the bomber was being chased by security forces but his car exploded when it hit the wedding party," he told AFP by telephone from the scene.
Several nearby shops and businesses, including the nearby Al-Baghdadi restaurant, were badly damaged in the blast, he said.
Baghdad is in the grip of a vicious war between rival sectarian and political factions and bomb attacks are still an almost daily occurrence, although a joint US and Iraqi security plan has reduced the violence.
Meanwhile: Clashes between Shiite militants and police in the southern Iraqi town of Samawa have left five people dead, police said today, while separately a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi soldiers.
A Samawa police captain, speaking on condition of anonymity, said fighting had broken out on Thursday when police attempted to crack down on armed members of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
The blast erupted outside a photographer's studio in Abu Tchir, a mainly Shiite district surrounded by restive Sunni suburbs and agricultural small holdings on the southern outskirts of the war-torn Iraqi capital.
More than two dozen people were injured, the officials said.
Local resident Ali Hussein, who rushed to the scene after the blast, said the wedding party had stopped at the Adel Photo Studio for pictures to be taken when a suicide car bomber collided with their convoy.
"I saw two minibuses completely burned out with bodies still inside them. People said the bomber was being chased by security forces but his car exploded when it hit the wedding party," he told AFP by telephone from the scene.
Several nearby shops and businesses, including the nearby Al-Baghdadi restaurant, were badly damaged in the blast, he said.
Baghdad is in the grip of a vicious war between rival sectarian and political factions and bomb attacks are still an almost daily occurrence, although a joint US and Iraqi security plan has reduced the violence.
Meanwhile: Clashes between Shiite militants and police in the southern Iraqi town of Samawa have left five people dead, police said today, while separately a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi soldiers.
A Samawa police captain, speaking on condition of anonymity, said fighting had broken out on Thursday when police attempted to crack down on armed members of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.