A suicide bomber detonated 450kg of explosives in a pickup truck outside the headquarters of the US-led coalition yesterday, killing about 20 people and injuring more than 60 -- most of them Iraqis.
The 8am attack on a major street in the heart of the Iraqi capital was the deadliest in Iraq since former president Saddam Hussein was captured Dec. 13 near his hometown of Tikrit.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The blast occurred a day before the top US civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer is to meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to ask for the world body's help in rebuilding Iraq.
A US military spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said about 20 people were killed and 63 were wounded. The military initially said two of the dead were Americans working for the Pentagon but later retracted the statement, saying their nationalities were unknown but they were not Defense Department employees.
The wounded included three US civilians and three American soldiers, the military said. The rest of the victims were believed to be Iraqis.
The bomb exploded near the "Assassin's Gate" to Saddam's former Republican Palace complex, now the US-led occupation authority's headquarters. The gate is used by hundreds of Iraqis employed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, as well as US military vehicles.
The Iraqi Governing Council blamed the "heinous crime" on terrorists allied with Saddam.
"This is yet another stigma on the foreheads of the mass grave regime and its terrorist allies inside and outside [the country], who have no value for sacred things or human lives," the council said in a statement read by spokesman Hameed al-Kafai.
One witness, Salah Farhan, said he was going through the checkpoint when he saw a Land Cruiser try to cut to the head of the line. The vehicle exploded about two cars back from the gate, he said.
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