Suicide attackers detonated a car bomb on Wednesday near an Iraqi national guard recruiting centre in west Baghdad, killing at least six people and injuring 54, authorities said.
Another car bomb shook the capital’s upscale Mansour district in the afternoon, police and witnesses said. Four United States soldiers were wounded in that blast along with at least two Iraqis, the military said.
Bloodied bodies, shattered glass and debris littered the street in the commercial neighbourhood of Al-Jamiyah after the first explosion, which took place outside a photocopy shop crowded with men readying their application papers before taking them to the recruiting centre.
At least 13 vehicles were wrecked and the engine of the suicide car was hurled about 50m away.
”A man in a black Opel car drove up near the shop and detonated the explosives,” said police officer Ahmed Jassem.
Ali Jabbar, who owns a nearby shop, helped relief workers to pick up human remains and put them into plastic bags.
”I found this in the back of my pick-up truck,” he said, pointing to a piece of a brain in his hand.
Iraqi police and US troops immediately cordoned off the area.
Interior Ministry official Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman said the blast was caused by a suicide car bomber.
At least six people were killed and 54 wounded, said Dr Mohammed Salaheddin of the nearby Yarmouk hospital.
Insurgents have repeatedly targeted Iraqi police and national guard forces with bombings, mortar attacks and shootings in a bid to sow instability and disrupt US-backed efforts to build a strong Iraqi security force. Hundreds have died in the attacks.
Abdul-Rahman said the second explosion was also caused by a suicide bomber in a booby-trapped car. Thick black smoke could be seen rising from the area.
American vehicles were in the street at the time of the blast and could have been the target, said a police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
US military press officer Sharon Walker said four US soldiers and two Iraqi civilians were injured in the blast. But the Yarmouk hospital said it received three people from that explosion.
The conflicting figures could not immediately be reconciled. — Sapa-AP