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21 killed as bus stop bombed
28/06/2007 11:51 - (SA)
Baghdad - A rush-hour car bomb attack at a Baghdad bus stop killed 21 people and wounded dozens on Thursday, hours after the British military lost three troops in a pre-dawn roadside bombing in southern Iraq.
A parked car exploded next to commuters waiting at a bus stop in the capital's southern Al-Bayaa neighbourhood, killing 21 people and wounding 42 more, hospital and security officials said.
Iraqi security officials said the explosion occurred at around 04:15 GMT and expected the death toll to rise. The US military confirmed the attack and said it was investigating the incident.
A medic in the city's Yarmuk hospital confirmed receiving the bodies of 21 people killed in the blast and said ambulances were still arriving with victims.
The targeted neighbourhood, a mixed area in southwest Baghdad, is often the scene of clashes between Shi'ite militiamen and Sunni insurgents, and has been hit by several car bombs in the course of Iraq's sectarian conflict.
Although the area lies in the mostly Sunni western half of the city, US commanders there say the Shi'ite Mahdi Army militia maintains an intimidating presence and has driven many Sunnis from their homes.
The evictions have brought retaliatory car bombs and an escalating cycle of violence, despite the increased presence of US and Iraqi forces following the launch of a Baghdad security crackdown in February.
High-profile car bombings
The explosion on Thursday came after a similar late night blast on Wednesday in Baghdad's Shi'ite neighbourhood of Kadhimiyah, which killed 10 people.
That explosion was at an intersection in the neighbourhood which houses the revered shrine of Shi'ite imam Musa Kadhim.
Insurgents have managed to carry out several high-profile car bombings in Baghdad - the epicentre of the communal bloodletting - despite the increased presence of US and Iraq troops.
In the southern city of Basra, three British soldiers were killed and a fourth seriously wounded when a roadside bomb hit their foot patrol, military spokesperson Major David Gell said.
Iraq's second city is a battleground between rival Shi'ite factions and the 5 500-strong British force deployed there often come under attack.
The deaths brought the total number of British casualties in Iraq to 156, and came a day after Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to "learn the lessons that need to be learned" from his country's interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US military also reported the death of one more soldier in a similar roadside bomb attack in east Baghdad.
The attack took the military's losses to 76 in the month of June and 3 553 since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
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