Truck Bombing Kills at Least 10 in Iraq

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20031217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

<snip>BAGHDAD, Iraq - An explosives-laden truck speeding toward a police station collided with a bus at an intersection before dawn Wednesday, killing at least 10 Iraqis amid a surge of violence since the weekend arrest of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

Twenty people also were injured in the attack in al-Bayaa, a poor district in southwest Baghdad, hospital officials said. Ahmed Kadhim Ibrahim, deputy interior minister, said the dead were Iraqis, and that the truck driver had planned to strike the police station.

The charred, crumpled bus lay in the intersection after the blast. Body parts were scattered in the area. A pink plastic sandal was left in the street (news - web sites). Two cars nearby were destroyed.

U.S. soldiers arrived and took photographs of the shattered remains of the truck.


On Edit: Reuters says 17 dead....http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20031217/ts_nm/iraq_dc

Heard on the radio this morning that a petrol tanker had exploded
in Baghdad - 10 or so killed:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3326499.stm

Sounds quite a confused story ...

<snip>

Police said a collision with a bus had set off a bomb in the tanker
as it was heading for a police station, but other observers blamed
igniting petrol.

<snip>

Hassan Haidar Khattab, another witness, said the tanker had appeared
to be following a US military convoy when it was struck by a
passenger car.

<snip>

Other eyewitnesses said the tanker was being pursued by police who
fired on it, causing it to explode.

<snip>

(If the last one is true, I really hope that the police car was the
"car with four people killed" ... real smart, shooting at a petrol
tanker to get it to stop ...)

Nihil