IRAQ: CAR BOMB EXPLODES IN PALESTINE STREET, BAGHDAD. / ROADSIDE BOMB IN FALLUJA DESTROYS MONUMENT AT ENTRANCE TO THE CITY.

Record ID: 358900

  • Title: IRAQ: CAR BOMB EXPLODES IN PALESTINE STREET, BAGHDAD. / ROADSIDE BOMB IN FALLUJA DESTROYS MONUMENT AT ENTRANCE TO THE CITY.
  • Date: 31st December 2003
  • Summary: (W5) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (DECEMBER 31,2003) (REUTERS) 1. WS: OF U.S. VEHICLES NEAR THE SITE OF EXPLOSION 0.06 2. WS: U.S. MILITARY VEHICLE AND CROWD OF PEOPLE ON THE SCENE. 0.11 3. WS: OF U.S. SOLDIERS ON THE STREET. 0.15 4. MLV: OF U.S. SOLDIERS AND PEOPLE DETAINED BEHIND BARBED WIRE. 0.28 5. WS: DETAINED PEOPLE SURROUNDED BY BAR
  • Embargoed: 15th January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD AND FALLUJA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA5ZFXFTTJX2FYL8K89PK7OBPE8
  • Story Text: Car bomb explodes in central Baghdad as security is
    stepped up amid fears of more attacks over the New Year
    period.



    U.S. forces detained dozens of Iraqis after a car
    bomb exploded on Wednesday (December 31) in a street in
    central Bagdad frequently patrolled by U.S. convoys.

    The car blew up in Palestine Street in the heart of the
    city, only metres away from a building occupied by U.S.

    soldiers.

    The street was frequently patrolled by U.S. soldiers,
    who immediately deployed in the area, blocked roads with
    tanks and barbed-wire barricades and rounded up more than
    50 people in search of who was behind the explosion.

    The explosion destroyed a number of cars and caused
    structural damage to nearby houses but there were no
    reports on the casualties in the blast.

    U.S.-backed security forces are increasing patrols in
    the Iraqi capital due to fears that insurgents may chose
    the New Year period to launch attacks against coalition
    forces.

    In the past four days, two U.S. soldiers have been
    killed in separate roadside bomb blasts, raising to 327 the
    number of U.S. troops killed in action since the war was
    launched in March.

    Also in Baghdad, Iraq's interim president Abdul Aziz
    al-Hakim said that the Iraqi governing council would take
    measures to end disturbances in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk
    after Wednesday's bloody protests that left at least five
    people dead and 20 injured.

    Hakim, the current president of the U.S-backed
    governing council, said he was "concerned with shooting and
    the killing of a number of Iraqi people" and added a
    special committee would be set to run what he called the
    "transitional period" in the region where most of Iraq's
    richest oil reserves are located.

    In Falluja, a roadside bomb exploded on the main road
    of the volatile town situated 75 kilometres west of
    Baghdad, in the tense "Sunni triangle" region.

    The bomb was planted under a monument at the entrance
    of the city and exploded when a U.S. convoy was driving by,
    witnesses said. Witnesses said they saw injured U.S.

    soldiers being evacuated from the site.

    There was no confirmation from the U.S. army on the
    incident

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