US admits 'gas leak' blast error in Baghdad
Car bombs triggered gas explosions in a Shia neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq, two days ago, the US said today, acknowledging its U-turn and that the carnage had been due to a hostile act.
At least 63 Iraqis were killed and 140 injured in a series of explosions Sunday night in Zafraniyah. Iraqi officials said the blasts were due to car bombs and a rocket attack from a Sunni neighbourhood under US control.
On Monday, however, a military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, insisted that American experts had concluded that there was “no evidence” of anything other than a “significant gas explosion".
That implied that the blast may not have been due to a hostile act.
However, a US statement today said the blasts were triggered when two car bombs detonated near a residential building, “causing a gas explosion” that collapsed the structure.
It said the blast was among four car bombs that took place within a 30-minute period and within 1.5 miles of one another.
“Four buildings and 20 shops were destroyed,” the statement said.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry said the rocket and mortar attacks were unleashed from Dora, a Sunni neighbourhood that US troops have targeted in their security crackdown. A Sunni extremist group claimed responsibility for the blasts in a statement posted on the internet.
