BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb parked at a busy commercial intersection in central Baghdad detonated on Thursday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 20 more, an Interior Ministry official said.
The incident -- which took place in Karrada -- occurred around 4:15 p.m. during a bustling shopping period at the start of the Muslim weekend and before the city's 8 p.m. curfew.
Police believe the bomber was targeting a police patrol. Two of those dead and three of those wounded were police.
The official warned that the casualty toll could go up.
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/25/thursday/index.html?section=cnn_latestSmoke rises over the Karrada neighborhood in central Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday Jan 25, 2007 after a car bomb blast. An initial report said that six people were killed and 14 wounded in the explosion. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A huge explosion rocked central Baghdad just be for sunset Thursday and a massive plume of black smoke was rising into the air along the east bank of the Tigris River.
The blast occurred shortly after two heavy mortar shells slammed into the heavily fortified Green Zone.
The public address system inside the zone, where the U.S. Embassy is located, could be heard warning in English that people should take cover, "this is not a drill."
Heavy gunfire rang out throughout the center of the city in the aftermath of the explosion, likely to have been a car rigged with explosives, thundered across the city and was especially heavy in the Karrada district. Sirens on emergency vehicles wailed through the region.
Initial reports from police said two people were killed in the explosion.
more;
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_explosion