- Title: IRAQ: WOUNDED IRAQIS TREATED IN HOSPITAL AFTER BOMB BLAST
- Date: 25th September 2003
- Summary: (U3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (SEPTEMBER 24, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV EXPLODED BUS / SCU BLOOD ON THE BUS (7 SHOTS) 0.45 3. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WITNESS SAYING "At eight am this 18-seater minibus left Gre'at and headed this way. The Americans overtook them and drove away. Then, just as those two civilian minibuses drove past the 18-seater and the 22-seater buse
- Embargoed: 10th October 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA41CYR3Z5MDD0WKOX0THK4W0KJ
- Story Text: Wounded Iraqis are being treated in hospital after a
bomb blast in Baghdad which killed one person and
wounded at least 18.
A bomb, apparently aimed at the U.S. military,
exploded near a commuter bus in Baghdad on Wednesday
(September 24), killing one Iraqi and injuring at least 18.
A police lieutenant at the scene told Reuters there
were "one dead and 22 injured".
A spokesman for the U.S. Army's 1st Armoured Division
said a roadside bomb went off as a military convoy drove by
and a nearby commuter bus was hit. There were no U.S.
casualties.
After the blast, one bus lay on the side of the road
peppered with holes from shrapnel, two of its wheels blown
off and blood staining the back of one of the seats. U.S.
soldiers in armoured vehicles guarded the scene.
Witnesses at the scene described what they saw.
"At 8am this 18-seater minibus left Gre'at and headed
this way. The Americans overtook them and drove away. Then,
just as those two civilian minibuses drove past the
18-seater and the 22-seater buses, there was an explosion.
Both of them were damaged. Many were wounded and there was
blood all over the street. And people stumbled out of the
bus," one witness said.
"There was a landmine on the road divider when this
minibus was driving and the bomb exploded. It also hit the
other one, the 18-seater (points at it behind him). The
people on the minibuses were wounded, but some of those on
the other bus were killed," another witness explained.
Doctors at Baghdad's Medical City received 7 wounded
Iraqis. Another hospital said it received another 11
wounded and one dead. This would bring the toll to 18
wounded. Iraqi police Lieutenant Aws Aduladhim said 22 were
injured and that all were Iraqis.
Guerrillas opposed to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq
often use roadside bombs to target military convoys. U.S.
troops come under attack about a dozen times a day,
commanders say.
Meanwhile Iraqi police found unexploded ordnance in a
tunnel in the centre of Baghdad on Wednesday.
The police sent a robot to find and defuse the device
but the robot got stuck inside the tunnel and the police
had to go back down to rescue the it.
Mohammed Salman, a traffic policeman, said that they
came to the scene after someone reported finding explosives
and a land- mine inside the tunnel. They diverted the
traffic with the help of the police force and sent an
explosive expert inside the tunnel to defuse the
explosives, he said.
The robot forms part of heightened security measures
following almost daily attacks on US troops, since U.S.
President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in
the war to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Washington has blamed Saddam loyalists and al Qaeda
militants.
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