Baghdad bombings kill 35 children

THREE bombs exploded at a neighbourhood celebration in western Baghdad yesterday, killing 35 children and seven adults, officials said.

Hours earlier, a suicide car bomb killed a US soldier and two Iraqis on the capital's outskirts.

The bombs in Baghdad's al-Amel neighbourhood caused the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the conflict in Iraq began 17 months ago.

The children, who were still on school holidays, said they had been drawn to the scene by American soldiers handing out candy.

The blasts - at least two of which an Iraqi official said were suicide car bombs - went off in swift succession about 1pm, killing 42 people and wounding 141 others, including 10 US soldiers.

The bombs targeted a ceremony in which residents were celebrating the opening of a new sewage system, and a US convoy was passing by at the same time, said Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman.

"The Americans called us, they told us, 'Come here, come here', asking us if we wanted sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded," said 12-year-old Abdel Rahman Dawoud, lying naked in a hospital bed with shrapnel embedded all over his body.

The day of violence, including insurgent attacks and US air strikes in Fallujah, left a total of 46 people dead and 208 wounded.

In the northern city of Tal Afar, a car bomb targeting the police chief killed at least four people and wounded 16, Iraqi and US officials said.

A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the police chief, whose name was only given as Colonel Ismail, escaped the assassination attempt.

Also yesterday, the Arab news network Al-Jazeera showed video footage of 10 new hostages seized in Iraq by militants.

Al-Jazeera said the 10 - six Iraqis, two Lebanese and two Indonesian women - were taken by The Islamic Army in Iraq. The group has claimed responsibility for seizing two French journalists last month.

A Lebanese official later said kidnappers had released one Lebanese captive, although it was not clear if he was among the 10.

In the al-Amel bombings, grief-stricken parents wailed over the bodies of their children at the Yarmouk Hospital morgue. One woman tore at her hair before pulling back the sheet covering her dead brother and kissing him.

One man carried his younger brother - both legs bandaged - to the hospital, where some children were put two to a bed because of the many wounded.

Outside, women sat on the ground and wept as they awaited news about their children.

The hospital received 42 bodies - including those of 35 children - and 131 wounded, said Iyhsan Nasser, head of the facility's statistics department.

At the site of the blasts, body parts were strewn in the streets amid pools of blood. A US helicopter evacuated some of the wounded while other aircraft circled overhead and soldiers sealed off the area.

Lieutenant Colonel Jim Hutton, spokesman for the US 1st Cavalry Division, said 10 American soldiers were among the wounded.

Another spokesman, Major Phil Smith, said the first two explosions targeted the ceremony, while the third was aimed at a nearby Iraqi National Guard checkpoint.

The Americans said all three blasts were from car bombs; Abdul-Rahman said two were suicide car bombs and one was a roadside bomb.

"This attack was carried out by evil people who do not want the Iraqis to celebrate and don't want (reconstruction) projects in Iraq," said Iraqi National Guard Lt Ahmad Saad.

Hours earlier, a suicide car bomber struck in the Abu Ghraib area outside of Baghdad, killing an American soldier and at least two Iraqis, and wounding 60. That bomb targeted a compound housing the mayor's office and a police station.