Baghdad car bomb kills 13
At least 16 people killed in five attacks Monday
Monday, June 14, 2004 Posted: 11:27 AM EDT (1527 GMT)


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A car bomb hit a convoy of Western electrical contractors during rush hour Monday morning in central Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 60, according to coalition, diplomatic and Iraqi officials.

A General Electric spokesman said three of those killed were employees of subsidiary Granite Services, which works on power generation projects, and two others were security contractors working with the employees.

It was the second deadly car bombing in Baghdad in two days.

The prime minister of Iraq's interim government condemned the violence.

"We deplore this terrorist act and vow to get the criminals to justice as soon as possible," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said.

About 40 minutes after Monday's car bombing, a 14th person -- a Western civilian contractor -- was killed in a roadside attack in eastern Baghdad, a coalition official said.

In another attack Monday in Baghdad, Iraq police Lt. Col. Abdul Rahman Adnan said two Iraqi civilians were killed and four wounded in a roadside bomb that apparently targeted passing Iraqi police patrol cars.

According to a senior military coalition official, the apparent target of the car bomb was a convoy of three sport utility vehicles.

General Electric spokesman Gary Sheffer declined to identify the nationality of the victims, saying notification of families was ongoing.

However, the British Foreign Office in London confirmed two Britons died in the blast. The French Embassy in Baghdad said one of its citizens was killed and a senior coalition official said an American contractor died in the attack. The identification of the fifth foreign national was not immediately known.

Shahab Ahmed with the Ministry of Health said eight Iraqis were also killed and 60 were wounded in the explosion.

According to Hassan Rashid with Baghdad Emergency Police, an SUV packed with 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of explosives was used in the attack. He said nine cars were destroyed in the blast, along with the three SUVs.

CNN's Jane Arraf said the blast occurred around 8 a.m. (midnight EDT) in the "heart of the commercial center" of the Iraqi capital near Liberation Square.

Several vehicles caught fire from the blast and firefighters worked to put out the flames. A building was demolished in the blast. Iraqis dug through the rubble, removing bloodied victims.

People were loaded into the back of pickups and into ambulances to be taken for medial treatment. Pools of blood could be seen on the pavement.

Sunday bombing kills 12
Monday's car bombing came a day after another car bomb attack near a U.S. military installation on the outskirts of Baghdad. That blast left 12 Iraqis dead, eight civilians and four police officers. Thirteen others were wounded, according to a coalition news release.

The spate of attacks have inflamed the tempers of many Iraqis. Shouts of "Where is the freedom?" and "Where is the democracy?" could be heard from members of the crowd, following Monday's rush hour attack. Others yelled that Americans and Jews were responsible.

Some Iraqis pelted an SUV damaged in the blast with sticks and stones. Gunshots could be heard at the scene.

Iraqi official assassinated
Also in Baghdad on Sunday, gunmen shot and killed Education Ministry official Kamal al-Jarah outside his home, the ministry told CNN. It was the third attack -- and the second successful one -- on a senior Iraqi official in less than a week.

And it came less than a day after three prominent residents of Kirkuk were killed in attacks, including a well-known Kurdish cleric, a district mayor who also served as a police officer and the father of Kirkuk's police chief. Fighting in the northern city continued Sunday, when one civilian was killed and seven police were wounded in clashes, coalition military officials said.

Coalition spokesman Dan Senor told CNN Monday that while "protection of these officials is a high priority ... we will not be able to protect every single one of them."

"We either provide security personnel or we provide training and funding," he said.

Despite the attacks, Senor said the June 30 handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi government was going forward -- and in fact had already taken place in many instances.

"We started handing over ministries a couple of months ago, and more than half of them are now being run by Iraqis," he said. "Iraqis are running most functions of their government right now."

Other developments:

Two Lebanese nationals have been kidnapped in Iraq, a Lebanese Foreign Ministry official said Monday. The two worked for the construction company Suwaydan, the official said, and they were reported missing on Sunday, the official said.


In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an Iraqi police officer was killed in an insurgent attack Sunday on a police station in the Al Tayaran neighborhood, a coalition spokesman said Monday. Earlier Sunday, a roadside bomb detonated near a bridge on Mosul's south side, wounding two civilians and damaging three vehicles, the spokesman said. U.S. soldiers detained three people for questioning Sunday afternoon, the spokesman said, after a mortar round struck near their location. There were no injuries.


Iraq wants the help of a multinational security force after the scheduled handover of power on June 30, but "On major operations, which [have] political consequences, they've got to seek the approval of the Iraqi leadership or command," said Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, Iraq's interim president.


In Najaf, where fighting has eased somewhat between insurgents loyal to radical Islamic cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and coalition forces, a spokesman said al-Sadr is considering entering Iraqi politics. "There is a future plan on forming a political party to contest Iraq's January national election," Qais Khazaali said. "We have this idea, and we are discussing it, if this crisis will end, God willing."


U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the U.S. military plans to release 650 inmates from Abu Ghraib prison Monday. The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military prison guards at the notorious facility has sparked outrage throughout the world.