Bombers kill at least 16 in Baghdad
A car bomb exploded near an entrance to Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone that is home to the US embassy and Iraqi government buildings today, killing at least 15 people and wounding 81.
Less than an hour later, a second car bomb ripped through the Iraqi capital’s Saadoun Street about 50 yards from the Baghdad Hotel causing an unspecified number of casualties. Body parts were strewn in the street.
The first explosion took place near a checkpoint at the western entrance to the Green Zone. Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman said it was caused by a 4X4 vehicle packed with explosives.
“I was thrown 10 yards away and hit the wall,” said Wissam Mohammed, 30, who was visiting an Iraqi forces recruiting centre when the explosion happened. He lay in a bed at Yarmouk Hospital, his right hand broken, his head wrapped in bandages and his clothes stained with blood.
Yarmouk Hospital received 15 bodies and 81 wounded from the explosion, said Sabah Aboud, the facility’s chief registration official.
Troops cordoned off the scene and helicopters clattered overhead.
The second car bomb was detonated near a number of major hotels, Abdul-Rahman said. American and Iraqi forces opened fire after the blast, but it was not immediately clear what they were shooting at, witnesses said.
The car carrying the explosives was ripped in half with one part left dangling from a shop sign on the opposite side of the street.
At least five other cars were charred, with a burned body left sitting in one of them. Broken glass littered the street.
Some of the injured, including a man with bloodied bandages wrapped around his head, were helped into nearby hotels. Others were rushed to surrounding hospitals.
Thick black smoke rose from the scene and a pair of helicopters circled the area as troops blocked off the road.
No American forces were believed hurt or killed in either blast, Smith said.
Both the Green Zone and the area around Saadoun Street have been the target of previous suicide attacks that have killed dozens of people.
Insurgents have been waging a 17 month campaign to undermine the interim government and drive the United States and its allies from Iraq.
