Baghdad, January 18
A massive suicide car bomb killed 23 persons and wounded 95 in the deadliest attack yet on the US headquarters in Iraq today. People were waiting to enter the symbol of Washington’s power in the capital, when the explosion took place, officials said. The blast caused widespread devastation, turning a busy central Baghdad street into a battlefield inferno, as the wounded lay outside the main entrance to the compound, known as Assassin’s Gate, flames devoured cars and black smoke spewed into the air.
At least two Americans working for the US Defense Department were among the dead, a US military spokesman said.
The combined toll from hospitals put the number of dead at 23 and the wounded at 95.
“Sixteen Iraqis and two US Defense Department employees were killed,” the spokesman said. The figure did not count those taken to local hospitals, he added.
The US spokesman identified the wounded being treated in US hospitals as 22 Iraqi civilians, four US civilian contractors and two US soldiers.
Another three dead and 30 wounded were reported from Baghdad’s Karrama Hospital, two dead at Yarmuk Hospital, and a total of 37 wounded at Yarmuk, al-Kindi and the Neurological Surgical hospitals.
A coalition spokesman confirmed the attack was a “homicide bomb,” which Iraqi police chief General Ahmed Ibrahim quickly denounced as an “act of terrorism carried out by foreign groups”.
“This is against Islam,” he added.
“If the terrorists think that this is the way to return the Baath Party to power, they are deluded,” Ibrahim said, referring to the party of deposed president Saddam Hussein.
It was the bloodiest attack in the Iraqi capital since insurgents launched a string of five suicide car bomb attacks on October 27, killing at least 40 persons. —
AFP
