40 killed in Baghdad blast
2007-06-19 14:07
Baghdad - At least 40 people were killed when a truck bomb exploded outside a Shi'ite mosque in central Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi security and hospital officials said.
A parked truck near al-Kholani mosque exploded, killing at least 40 people and wounding 112 others, they said.
It was the latest in a series of tit-for-tat bombings against Shi'ite and Sunni mosques in Iraq.
The explosion rocked the capital two days after the lifting of a citywide curfew intended to prevent a wave of sectarian bloodletting after the bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine last Wednesday in northern Iraq.
The blast, which brought down the gold-tipped minarets of the al-Askari mosque in the northern city of Samarra, prompted a rash of bombings of Sunni mosques south of the capital.
In a bid to stem the violence, the government brought in citywide curfews in Baghdad and Samarra which kept both cities relatively quiet until Sunday, when people were once again permitted to go outside.
Since then there have been attacks in both cities targeting civilians and local police.
Tuesday's blast sent white dust and a cloud of billowing black smoke into the sky over the Sinak district of the capital, and gunshots rang out across the city in the wake of the explosion.