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Dual bombing in Iraq kills at least 63
By THOMAS WAGNER and QAIS AL-BASHIR
Associated Press Writers
BAGHDAD, Iraq Two car bombs targeting day laborers looking for work exploded within seconds of each other Tuesday on a main square in central Baghdad, killing at least 63 people and wounding scores, the government said.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a member of Iraq's Shiite majority, condemned the attack and blamed it on Sunni extremists and supporters of Saddam Hussein.
In the northern city of Mosul, a television cameraman working for The Associated Press was shot to death by insurgents while covering clashes - the third AP employee killed in the Iraq war.
The coordinated attack in Baghdad's Tayaran Square involved a suicide attacker who drove up to the day laborers pretending to want to hire them, then set off his explosives as they got into his minibus, Lt. Bilal Ali said. At virtually the same time - 7 a.m. - a bomb exploded in a car parked some 30 yards away.
The blasts shattered storefront windows, dug craters in the road and set fire to about 10 other cars.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said at least 63 people were killed and 236 were wounded, although some police put the number of dead as high as 71 with a lower wounded toll of 151. The different figures could not immediately be reconciled.
Ali said most of the victims were Shiites from poor areas of the capital such as Sadr City.
Iraqis gather on the square early in the morning, soliciting jobs as construction workers, cleaners and painters. They buy breakfast at stands selling tea and egg sandwiches while they wait for potential employers to drive up.
Khalil Ibrahim, 41, who owns a shop in the area, was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his head and back.
"In the first explosion, I saw people falling over, some of them blown apart. When the other bomb went off seconds later, it slammed me into a wall of my store and I fainted," he said.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/headlines/D8LVD9UO1.html
Not that the article did, but it seems that a good portion of the world does. Any thoughts?
By THOMAS WAGNER and QAIS AL-BASHIR
Associated Press Writers
BAGHDAD, Iraq Two car bombs targeting day laborers looking for work exploded within seconds of each other Tuesday on a main square in central Baghdad, killing at least 63 people and wounding scores, the government said.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a member of Iraq's Shiite majority, condemned the attack and blamed it on Sunni extremists and supporters of Saddam Hussein.
In the northern city of Mosul, a television cameraman working for The Associated Press was shot to death by insurgents while covering clashes - the third AP employee killed in the Iraq war.
The coordinated attack in Baghdad's Tayaran Square involved a suicide attacker who drove up to the day laborers pretending to want to hire them, then set off his explosives as they got into his minibus, Lt. Bilal Ali said. At virtually the same time - 7 a.m. - a bomb exploded in a car parked some 30 yards away.
The blasts shattered storefront windows, dug craters in the road and set fire to about 10 other cars.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said at least 63 people were killed and 236 were wounded, although some police put the number of dead as high as 71 with a lower wounded toll of 151. The different figures could not immediately be reconciled.
Ali said most of the victims were Shiites from poor areas of the capital such as Sadr City.
Iraqis gather on the square early in the morning, soliciting jobs as construction workers, cleaners and painters. They buy breakfast at stands selling tea and egg sandwiches while they wait for potential employers to drive up.
Khalil Ibrahim, 41, who owns a shop in the area, was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his head and back.
"In the first explosion, I saw people falling over, some of them blown apart. When the other bomb went off seconds later, it slammed me into a wall of my store and I fainted," he said.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/headlines/D8LVD9UO1.html
Not that the article did, but it seems that a good portion of the world does. Any thoughts?
