A car bomb exploded at rush hour yesterday on one of central Baghdad's most heavily trafficked streets, and an Iraqi civil defense official said at least 12 people had been killed and dozens injured. Angry Iraqis shouted "down with the USA" and set fire to an American flag.
A second car bombing occurred yesterday near the town of Salman Pak southeast of Baghdad. Police said a gray Opel drove between police vehicles and exploded, killing four people and injuring four others.
Casualty figures in the Baghdad attack were incomplete in the chaos, as Iraqis crammed injured into private vehicles and rushed them to different hospitals and clinics following the car bombing -- the 16th in Iraq this month.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Iraqi civil defense Colonel Qadri Abdul-Latif said at least 12 people were killed, many in shops and a two-story building that were heavily damaged in the blast, which occurred at Tahrir Square on the eastern end of the Jumhuria Bridge which crosses the Tigris river.
Captain Issam Ali, security officer at the nearby Neurological Hospital, said three dead and 14 injured had been brought there, many with serious burns and lost limbs. Al-Kindi Hospital reported receiving 29 injured.
Witnesses said three civilian sport utility vehicles -- the kind favored by Western contractors -- passed by. All three of the SUVs were damaged and one could be seen burning, and a two-story house was heavily damaged.
At least one charred body was removed from the rubble, along with an blood-soaked elderly man.
A group of about 20 young men danced around a charred body. American soldiers hauled down one Iraqi man and began beating him with sticks.
Terrified bystanders dragged bloodied bodies and crammed them on the back of pickup trucks to rush them to hospitals. Scattered around one of the damaged SUVs were manuals that appeared to be for energy turbines. One of the manuals was entitled GE Energy Products, Europe.
Police said at least eight vehicles had been destroyed in the blast.
"Three American vehicles passed over the Jumhuria bridge heading to Tahrir square," said one eyewitness Mohammed Salman, 55. "One of the civilian cars stopped in the traffic and exploded. The Iraqi police came first and started taking out people out of the American damaged cars. They took out three with their clothes torn from each of the damaged cars on the street. One body is still burning inside the [SUV] which was turned upside down."
The scene was chaotic as terrified people crawled over the rubble of the building to extract the wounded, lifting them with bedsheets and blankets before tossing them into ambulances.
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
RSS