 A car bomb has exploded in south Baghdad, killing four guards and injuring eight people near the offices of a leading Iraqi Shia party, Aljazeera reports. Tuesday's bomb exploded by a checkpoint barrier about 60m from the headquarters of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), an important Shia party. "A suicide bomber tried to drive into the Jadriyah office of SCIRI," Haitham al-Hussaini, a spokesman for the party, said. Rida Jawad Taqi, head of SCIRI's political relations, told Aljazeera: "Terrorists and extremists from al-Qaida and al-Zarqawi groups are behind the attack, particularly those coming from outside Iraq." Iraqi journalist Ziyad al-Samarrai told Aljazeera the number of casualties might rise as the blast occurred near Baghdad University, which is usually crowded with students. Al-Samarrai said that the bomb probably targeted the SCIRI office and that the building was damaged in the explosion. |