- Title: IRAQ: Twenty dead and scores injured after car bomb in Iraq's second city, Basra
- Date: 1st November 2005
- Summary: (BN15) BASRA, IRAQ (OCTOBER 31, 2005) (AGENCY POOL) IRAQI NATIONAL GUARDS AND IRAQI POLICEMEN AT THE SITE OF THE BLAST (2 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 16th November 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVACDJQAYUHFOEJAGHSD88VFPBSU
- Story Text: A car bomb killed 20 people in Iraq's second city of Basra on Monday (October 31) at the end of the bloodiest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since early this year. Witnesses said a suicide bomber targeted Iraqi troops.
The car, apparently parked according to police, exploded near a restaurant in Basra's bustling Algiers Street area, which was packed with festive crowds enjoying the evening cool on one of the last evenings of the holy month of Ramadan.
Large crowds gathered outside the hospital, where relatives of the dead wept and wailed over the bloodied bodies piled up in the morgue.
"A lot, a lot of people injured and we can't count how many," said Iraqi policeman, Ahmed Ali.
An Interior Ministry official said 20 people were killed and 45 wounded. Several buildings were devastated and rescue workers picked body parts from the street. Deep in the majority Shi'ite heartland, the Gulf coast city has been spared much of the violence Sunni Arab insurgents have inflicted further north.
There has been tension among rival Shi'ite militias and in September 16 people were killed by an evening car bomb.
Also on Monday seven U.S. troops were killed by bombs near Baghdad, taking October's death toll to 93, the highest in one month since January, when 107 died. The number of Americans killed in Iraq passed the 2,000 mark a week ago. - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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