Car bomb kills one, wounds scores in northern Iraq
( 2003-09-10 10:56) (Agencies)
A car bomb exploded in the northern Iraqi city of
Arbil, killing one person and wounding scores including several Americans, the
U.S. military said on Wednesday.
The blast occurred at 2105 GMT Tuesday in Arbil in largely Kurdish northern
Iraq, which has been much quieter than the rest of the country since U.S.-led
troops toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein five months ago.
"We can confirm one Iraqi dead and 41 Iraqis wounded. Several U.S. Department
of Defense personnel were also wounded," U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Shane
Slaughter told Reuters in London by telephone from Baghdad, 220 miles south of
Arbil.
Earlier, a television channel in neighboring Turkey reported that the
explosion had taken place outside a U.S. military office. Slaughter could not
confirm this, saying only that the blast occurred near "the state house in
Arbil."
U.S.-led forces have come under attack almost every day since they ousted
Saddam.
U.S. officials mostly blame Saddam loyalists for the attacks and a spate of
bombings in recent weeks that hit the United Nations headquarters and the
Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and killed a leading Shi'ite Muslim cleric in the
holy city of Najaf.
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