Seven people were killed, including two children, and 47 others wounded when at least one mortar bomb landed near a Baghdad police station on Tuesday, the Health Ministry said.
”Seven people were killed, two of them children, and 47 injured, including two women. The other 35 were men,” said a spokesperson for the ministry.
A United States soldier and a civilian security guard were also wounded when another mortar fell between the convention centre, where a key national conference began its last day, and the interim Iraqi government building, the military said.
An Interior Ministry spokesperson said at least one mortar hit a business district in central Baghdad, near the Bab al-Muadaam police station, on the opposite side of the Tigris river.
”At first we thought it was a car bomb, because one building was very badly damaged, but ballistic experts have concluded it was a mortar bomb,” said Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman.
Witness Saadi Shawi (45) said there were casualties after mortar rounds hit dress-making workshops and damaged cars behind the Hader Khana mosque near Rashid street at about 11.25 am local time. — Sapa-AFP