At least 13 dead in Baghdad blast
A suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near a row of parked police cars in central Baghdad today and reports said 13 people were killed.
About six police cars were blocking a bridge leading to the central Haifa Street – where a massive blast targeting police killed more than 40 earlier this week – when a blue Chevrolet drove up to them.
Police asked the driver to stop, but he continued to advance and exploded his vehicle in the middle of the parked cars, said policeman Ammar Ali.
Health Ministry spokesman Saad al-Amili said at least five people were killed and 30 wounded in the blast, which sent flesh and blood spilling into the busy street. Other reports said at least 13 people were killed.
Two police cars were destroyed and five others were damaged, along with at least four civilian cars.
The police vehicles had been helping to seal off the area around Haifa Street, where American and Iraqi forces had raided suspected insurgent hideouts in the morning, sparking a gun battle.
The blast carved a crater about six feet wide and three feet deep. Debris, including at least five shells which apparently came from the vehicle, was scattered over an area the size of three basketball courts.
The explosion happened at lunchtime opposite a shopping complex on a busy market day.
Thousands of shoppers streamed from the area as ambulances with sirens wailing rushed by.
“I saw human flesh and blood in the street, then I fled,” said Mouayad Shehab as he escaped the scene.
Another witness, 25-year-old Haqqi Ismael, said shrapnel rained down on his stationery shop in the nearby al-Mutanabbi Street.
Iraqi police and US troops backed by Humvees sealed off the area.
