Five foreigners dead as rush hour car bomb kills 12

A CAR bomb tore through a convoy in central Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 12 people, including an American and four other foreigners.

A crowd shouted “Down with the USA!” as they danced around a charred body and burned the American flag.

The dead included three employees of Granite Services, a Florida-based subsidiary of General Electric, and two security contractors, said a GE spokeswoman.

Passions boiled over as a crowd of youths taunted US troops and Western journalists who rushed to the scene near Tahrir Square. American troops beat one man with a stick, but after failing to restrain the crowd, the troops and police withdrew.

The blast, which destroyed eight vehicles and turned nearby shops and a two-story house to rubble, is the second bombing in as many days to kill a dozen people and comes nearly two weeks before the formal end of the US-led occupation.

Some of the victims were in shops devastated by the blast. One elderly Iraqi man, still wearing bloodsoaked night clothes, was carried from the destruction. Frantic Iraqis scooped up the wounded and loaded them into private cars to be taken to hospitals.

The US military said the dead included two Britons, one Frenchman, one American and a foreigner of undetermined nationality. More than 60 people, including 10 foreign contractors, were injured, the military said.

The bomb went off as three SUVs carrying the contractors were passing through the square. Five other vehicles were also destroyed.

“We deplore this terrorist act and vow to bring these criminals to justice as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said. He said the foreign victims were helping to rebuild power plants.

Captain Issam Ali, security officer at the Neurological Hospital, said three dead and 14 injured had been brought there, many with serious burns and lost limbs. Al-Kindi Hospital reported receiving 29 injured.

Police said a car bomb also went off near the town of Salman Pak southeast of Baghdad when a grey Opel drove between police vehicles and exploded, killing four people and injuring four others. However, the report could not be independently confirmed and police were unable to provide a detailed report.

There have been 17 car bombings and a near-daily string of other attacks in Iraq this month. On Sunday, 12 people were killed by a car bomb in Baghdad, and gunmen assassinated another member of the new Iraqi government.