Karbala bomb kills 8
2004-12-19 14:15
Karbala - A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle in downtown Karbala's main bus station Sunday, killing eight people and wounding 30, a police official said.
Police spokesperson Rahman Mashawi said the blast occurred at 13:30 outside an entrance to Karbala's main Bab Baghdad bus station, a crowded terminal in the downtown area of the city located 80km south of Baghdad.
Mashawi said eight people were killed in the blast, not including the suicide bomber, and 30 injured.
Election office staff gunned down
Meanwhile, it was reported from Baghdad that three staff working at an Iraqi election office were gunned down in a known trouble spot in the centre of the city on Sunday.
A spokesperson for the body organising next month's landmark polls said the three were killed in Haifa Street, a bastion of Sunni Arab insurgents who have vowed to sabotage the polls.
"It's not by killing employees that the elections are going to be hindered, but the terrorists have their own strategy," said electoral commission spokesperson Farid Ayar.
He said armed men open fire on the election staff after two cars blocked their vehicle in Haifa Street.
The election commission has employed several thousand people to organise the January 30 elections, the first truly multi-party polls in Iraq in half a century.
- AP