Winks Blog

At Least 25 Killed, 77 Injured

Good Morning,

In the deadliest attack Thursday, three car bombs detonated within minutes of each other in front of a wholesale vegetable market near a Shiite enclave on the edge the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 30, police said.

The force of the 10:20 a.m. blast blew off part of the metal roof covering a loading area and a burned out van still had its bundle of lettuce and onions tied to the top. AP Television News video also showed the charred hulk of a car wedged under a truck. Lettuce and bloodstained clothes were scattered on the ground.

The al-Rashid market is located near Dora's Abu Dishir area on the highway that links the capital with the Iraq's southern areas. Most of the shop owners and workers were Shiites from Abu Dishir, although some Sunni vendors also use the market.

"I will think twice before transporting goods to this market again," said a driver from Hillah, a predominantly Shiite town 60 miles south of Baghdad, who identified himself only as Hussein.

About an hour later, a parked car bomb also struck a religiously mixed commercial area on a busy thoroughfare in central Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 10 others. The blast burned many civilian cars and shattered the windows of nearby storefronts.

Earlier in the day, a car bomb blew up as an Iraqi police patrol passed in a volatile area of central Baghdad, killing four people, including two policemen, and wounding 11, according to police.

Gunmen also opened fire on a police patrol near the al-Shaab stadium in eastern Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding another, police said.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attacks, but car bombings are the hallmark of Sunni militants, who appear to be taking advantage of a waiting period before a planned U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in Baghdad to step up attacks on Shiites.

In other violence, police said:

_ Two mortar shells hit a residential area in Azamiyah, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding 13.

_ A car parked near a police station in eastern Baghdad exploded, killing one civilian and wounding eight.

_ At least three people were killed in the northern city of Mosul, one by a roadside bomb and two who were shot to death when gunmen opened fire on the convoy of a wedding procession.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 11:50 AM