Car bomb kills 30

2005-09-17 20:35

Baghdad - A car bomb at a market in a poor Shiite district on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad killed at least 30 people and wounded 38 others at sunset on Saturday, police said.

Interior Ministry police Maj Falah al-Mhamadawi said the explosives-packed car was parked in front of fruit and vegetable stands in the market at Nahrawan, about 32 kilometres east of Baghdad, a poor suburb heavily populated by Shiite Muslims.

At Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital, police Lt Abdulal Ibrahim said the dead and injured were brought to the hospital in pickup trucks.

Some of the wounded lay bleeding on the hospital grounds, screaming in pain. Several had lost limbs.

"I came with my brother Hamid, whose right leg was blown off below the knee," said Alaa Mohammed, outside the hospital. "I saw neighbours putting him in a truck so I just jumped in with him."

Shiites have suffered the brunt of massive campaign of bomb and shooting attacks launched on Wednesday and claimed by al-Qaeda in Iraq. More than 200 people have been killed and hundreds wounded.

The Iraqi insurgency is predominantly Sunni Muslim and has vowed to continue stirring sectarian conflict as the date approaches for the October 15 referendum on a new constitution, which most militant Sunnis have already rejected.

- AP