|
Baghdad Car Bomb Kills 10, Injures 40
|
|
A
US
Army tank in the site of the car bomb explosion (AFP)
|
BAGHDAD,
July 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A car bomb explosion
early on Wednesday, July 14, killed at least 10 people and injured 40
others near the Green Zone in Baghdad, which houses the offices of the
US embassy and the interim Iraqi government, Iraqi interim Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi said.
Allawi
told reporters that the blast, which took place at about 9.30 a.m.
(0530 GMT), came in response to the Iraqi police’s crackdown on
"insurgents", Aljazeera news channel reported.
The
powerful blast occurred in an area where cars queue to drop visitors
to the Green Zone, a huge, heavily protected complex in central Baghdad.
Aljazeera
footage showed severely wounded Iraqis being rushed to hospital, while
black smoke billowed into the sky.
The
explosion destroyed at least four cars and knocked pedestrians off
their feet, Reuters news agency reported.
"I
saw seven dead," a
US
soldier at the scene of the blast told Reuters.
An
Iraqi National Guard said two of his colleagues were among the dead.
He
added that some of the wounded were from the interim Defense Ministry,
but he had no overall casualty figures.
"My
God, my God," screamed one woman, when the bomb went off. She ran
for cover, as did other visitors queuing for security checks at the
entrance to the US-held zone.
Iraqi
resistance fighters often fire mortars and rockets at the Green Zone
and car bombs have been detonated at its entrances.
In
May, the then head of
Iraq
's now-defunct Governing Council was
killed in a car bombing as he entered the compound.
Wednesday's
attack is the first major car bombing in Baghdad since Allawi's interim government took
over from US-led occupiers on June 28.
Bulgarian
Beheaded
|
|
A
TV grab taken from Aljazeera shows the two Bulgarian hostages
|
Meanwhile,
an Iraqi group beheaded Tuesday, July 13, a Bulgarian hostage and
vowed to execute a second within 24 hours unless US-led forces freed
all Iraqi prisoners.
Aljazeera
showed footage of three masked men with one of the Bulgarians kneeling
before them in a blindfold and orange jumpsuit, typical of those used
by American jailers in
Guantanamo
Bay
.
The
Doha-based broadcast said it had decided not to air a video tape from
the captors, because it was too gruesome.
"I
am speechless," Reuters quoted as saying Bulgarian Foreign
Minister Solomon Passy, whose country has contributed 470 troops to
US-led forces in
Iraq
.
His
deputy Gergana Grancharova said: "We all saw the cruel video
scenes. The news is true and shattering."
Government
officials would not disclose which of the two truck drivers, Georgi
Lazov, 30, and Ivailo Kepov, 32, had been killed. The men disappeared
on June 27.
Lazov's
mother Maria was shown on Bulgarian television weeping uncontrollably
and saying: "I don't blame anyone. There was nothing more anyone
could do."
The
Philippines
bowed Tuesday to demands of another Iraqi group holding one of its
citizens hostage and decided to put
ahead the withdrawal of its 50 soldiers from Iraqi scheduled on
August 20.
Iraqis
have seized dozens of foreigners since April to press demands for
foreign troops to leave their country.
Many
hostages have been freed but at least three have been beheaded,
including an
American and a
South Korean.
Islam
does
not permit any measure that causes harm or humiliation to any
human being, let alone killing him/her in cold blood or slaying them
like a sheep for everyone to see.
|
