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Car bomb kills 10 in shopping district

A car bomb killed at least 10 people in a crowded commercial area of western Baghdad yesterday, police said.

The blast occurred in Baiyaa, a mixed neighborhood, just after the morning rush hour, police said. At least 20 people were wounded, they said.

Baiyaa is one of Baghdad's most popular shopping districts, with hundreds of stores and kiosks.

Witnesses said several shops and stalls were damaged and four cars were incinerated by the explosion. Charred clothes hung from vendors' stalls.

Black smoke rose from the area, and blood was splattered on the ground, witnesses said.

Imad Jassim, a Shiite Muslim who owns a plastics shop, ran out of his store after the blast.

"People were in a state of panic. There was a lot of blood on the ground and we helped carrying the wounded to the ambulances," Jassim said.

"The terrorists behind this massacre want to paralyze life in Baghdad by attacking markets and public crowds," he said.

Shortly after the Baiyaa blast, at least four more explosions rang out across Baghdad. It was unclear whether they were additional bombs or controlled blasts set off by the US military.

Earlier, six mortar shells landed on the Shiite Muslim village of al-Maail south of the Iraqi capital, killing one person and wounding 14, police said.

Three roadside bombs exploded in Mahmoudiyah, another Shiite area about 30km south of Baghdad. One civilian was killed and three others wounded, police said.

Meanwhile, gunmen killed two brothers of a prominent Sunni politician in Muqdadiya, north of Baghdad, police and the politician said. Saleem al-Jubouri, spokesman for the largest Sunni political bloc in parliament, said his brothers, Fuad and Ahmed, were killed instantly when gunmen opened fire on them in his volatile home province of Diyala.
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