18 die in Iraq car bombings

2004-10-04 19:13

Baghdad - Three car bombings killed at least 18 Iraqis and injured over 100 on Monday, while new US air raids on Fallujah left 12 Iraqis dead, among them six children, local reports said.

Two car bombings occurred in Baghdad within one hour of each other, and a third was reported from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

One bomb in central Baghdad was apparently directed against a US patrol and exploded in Sadun Street.

The Arabic news channel al-Arabiya spoke of one dead and 22 injured after the attack.

The second attack in Baghdad took place in front of a recruitment station of the Iraqi army near the so-called Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi interim government and the US embassy.

Doctors in the al-Yarmouk hospital in western Baghdad reported 12 dead and more than 80 wounded, but said casualties were also brought to other hospitals.

The victims were mainly young men who had been queueing outside the recruitment office.

The third car bombing, also a suicide attack, left five Iraqis dead - two suicide bombers and three passers-by - and another 11 injured in Mosul, the Arabic news channel al-Arabiya reported. Three children were among the injured.

Earlier in the day, US forces had conducted a new round of aerial bombings in Fallujah, a centre of insurgence against the US military in Iraq.

Hospital doctors reported that 12 Iraqis, including two women and six children, died and another 14 were injured in the two pre-dawn attacks.

The US military command in Baghdad commented on Monday morning that it had conducted "precision strikes" against bases of the Jordanian-born terrorist leader and al-Qaeda operative Musab al-Zarqawi in the city.

The US air raids occurred only hours after a delegation of residents in the city had negotiated a truce for the city with Iraqi government officials late on Sunday.

- SAPA