[Al Arabiya Latest] A bomb killed 13 people and wounded over 50 when it exploded in an industrial area of Baghdad on Friday, just four days before United States combat troops are due to withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns.
Defense and interior ministry officials confirmed the toll and said the bomb went off around 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) while people gathered at the market on the Muslim day of rest. The bomb was planted on a motorbike in a market specializing in motorcycles in Bab al-Sheikh in central Baghdad.
" There was a huge shockwave. I saw so many people burned; others were thrown in the air. My friend was killed "
Bike trader Maytham Abdelamir |
"People burned and bodies were thrown everywhere," Omar Hashem, 34, who was accompanying a friend to the market when the explosion happened.
"At first we ran away but we returned to help the victims," he added, his clothes covered in blood.
| The act of a good citizen. |
Bike trader Maytham Abdelamir, 23, crying, added: "There was a huge shockwave. I saw so many people burned; others were thrown in the air. My friend was killed."
Officials from two Baghdad hospitals told AFP 54 people had been wounded.
A spate of bombings in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq raises questions about the abilities of Iraqi security forces, whose ranks have swelled since they were disbanded after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, to combat a stubborn insurgency.
| P'rhaps y'all should quietly ask the Americans not to leave just yet. |
On Wednesday, 78 people were killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, just days after a truck bomb killed 73 people in the northern city of Kirkuk.
| The Tree of Liberty, etc. |
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