Car Bomb Kills 23, Injures 99 At U.S. HQ In Iraq

At least two Americans working for the U.S. Defense Department were among the dead, a U.S. military spokesman said after the heaviest attack in Baghdad in months caused devastation at the checkpoint known as Assassin’s Gate, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Sixteen Iraqis and two U.S. Defense Department employees were killed," the spokesman said, stressing that his toll did not count those taken to local hospitals.

Another three dead and 30 wounded were reported from Baghdad’s Karrama hospital, two dead at Yarmuk hospital, and a total of 37 wounded at Yarmuk, al-Kindi and the Neurological Surgical hospitals.

The U.S. spokesman identified the wounded taken to U.S. military hospitals as 22 Iraqi civilians, four U.S. contractors and two U.S. soldiers.

The combined tolls from U.S. officials and hospitals put the number of wounded at 99, according to al-Jazeera Satellite Channel.

A busy central Baghdad street was transformed into a battlefield inferno as flames devoured cars and licked at the brick walls of the compound known as the Green Zone black smoke spewed into the air.

"It was a homicide bomb," an occupation spokesman said, while Iraqi police chief General Ahmed Ibrahim denounced what he described as an "act of terrorism".

"This is an act of terrorism carried out by foreign groups. This is against Islam. They did not strike the might of the coalition because the majority of victims are Iraqis," he added.

"If the terrorists think that this is the way to return the Baath party to power, they are deluded," Ibrahim said.

The U.S. spokesman said the vehicle, which witnesses described as a pick-up truck, exploded 100 meters (yards) from the checkpoint outside the fortress-like headquarters, a former palace of Saddam Hussein.

"It was a car lining up to enter the palace that exploded," a police officer said outside the arched gateway to the symbol of US power in Iraq.

Another witness, Ahmed Hassan, said a pick-up truck had driven up to the back of the line and exploded, bursting into flames.

"Soldiers panicked. One was thrown to the ground. I saw an Iraqi coalition (occupation) employee hit the ground. He was wounded. It was so strong. The blast was so strong. I never heard anything like that before," he said.

Bradley armored vehicles and tanks sealed off the street.

Mohmmed Bashir, an employee with the occupation authority waiting to go inside the compound, said he saw five bodies lying on the street.

"There was a pick-up truck and six GMC cars," he said.

GMC sports utility vehicles are often used by western contractors and employees with the U.S.-led authority in the occupied Arab country.

Soldiers and civilians lifted wounded Iraqis from the ground as smoke formed a thick cloud.

The heavily-fortified bastion has been targeted by numerous rocket and mortar attacks since Saddam fell from power in April, but they have never caused any casualties inside the citadel.

Sunday’s blast is the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since insurgents launched a string of five car bomb attacks on October 27, killing at least 40 people.

It is also the worst since the capture of Saddam near his hometown of Tikrit on December 13. On New Year’s Eve a bombing at a popular restaurant killed eight people.

On Saturday, January 17, three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi troopers were killed when a roadside bomb blew apart their armored vehicle.

The latest deaths push to 501 the number of U.S. troops who have died through combat, accident or suicide, since the war on Iraq was launched in March, according to an AFP count.