At least 23 killed in Baghdad bombings
A suicide attacker detonated an explosive vest inside a crowded Baghdad coffee shop today and seconds later another bomb exploded under a nearby car, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26, police and hospital officials said.
The blasts occurred as the mother of abducted American reporter Jill Carroll appealed for her daughter’s release after her captors threatened to kill her if US authorities do not release all Iraqi women in military custody.
Iraqi authorities said six of the eight detained Iraqi females are expected to be released by the US military next week, but not as part of a bid to free Carroll, who was seized in Baghdad on January 7. American officials declined to comment.
The suicide bombing occurred in a coffee shop on Baghdad’s Saadoun Street, killing 16 people and wounding 21, said police Lt. Bilal Mohammed. The blast under a parked car outside the nearby al-Mathak restaurant killed at least seven more and injured five, including two women, Mohammed added.
Alaa Abid Ali, a medic at Baghdad’s Kindi Hospital, said at least 14 bodies had been received at his hospital while nine were taken Ibn al-Nafis Hospital.
The blasts shattered nearby shop windows and destroyed several cars. Wooden tables and chairs were strewn over the bloodstained pavement on which rescue workers treated some of the wounded. Two men wailed above the dead bodies of two men covered with bloodstained blankets outside the coffee shop.
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