Baghdad car bomb death toll rises to 10
A suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting outside a heavily-guarded court building in Baghdad today, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding 47.
All were civilians except two policemen who were wounded, police said.
Police first said the attack was caused by a car bomb targeting a three-car police convoy in the area, but later said it was caused by a man with explosives hidden beneath his clothing.
The man set them off in a crowd of police officers and civilians waiting outside the civil court, said police Lt. Thair Mahmoud.
The officers were guarding the building and many of the civilians were meeting just outside it with paralegals writing the petitions the civilians planned to submit to the court.
The blast occurred at 9.45am local time on Palestine Street, a major road in a mixed Sunni-Shiite area of eastern Baghdad. It was powerful enough to smash the windows of some nearby shops.
Firefighters in yellow helmets rushed to the scene and were using hoses to clean blood stains from the pavement and street outside the court.
