Six killed in suicide car bomb blast

A speeding suicide driver detonated his car bomb on a busy commercial avenue in Baghdad today leaving six people dead and dozens wounded.

A member of Iraq’s 25-seat interim Governing Council, Mouwafak al-Rabii, was in the Baghdad Hotel at the time and suffered a slight hand injury, he told Al-Jazeera satellite television.

Col. Peter Mansoor of the !st Armoured Division said there were six dead, all Iraqis, and at least 10 others wounded, including one US soldier who later returned to duty.

Police said an Iraqi security guard and the bomber were among the dead.

Saad Hamid, 41, a shopkeeper near the scene, said police caught a car bomber at the same spot six weeks ago before he could detonate his explosive. Authorities then erected a blast wall at the end of the street.

The force of today’s blast blew over at least two sections of the thick concrete barrier, and hurled bricks to the third floor of nearby buildings.

One witness, Sevan Armin, 33, said the car approached the Baghdad Hotel on the wrong side of the street. “It was travelling at high speed. The guards at the gate fired on it. The car hit the concrete blast barrier and exploded.”

Another witness, Sabah Ghulam, 37, was in a car travelling behind the suicide bomber.

“The car in front of us, a 1990 Toyota Corolla, suddenly turned into the hotel … A policeman shot at him four times, and then there was the explosion.” He said the windows in his car were shattered.

Windows were blown out of buildings as far as two blocks from the explosion. The suicide bomber’s car had reached within 70 yards of the hotel packed with Americans – the apparent target.

US troops swiftly surrounded the blast scene.

The blast rattled windows in the Palestine Hotel, home to many members of the international press corps covering the aftermath of the US-led war in Iraq.

It was the second big car bombing in the capital in the past four days. A suicide bomber hit a police station in Sadr City, the northeast Shiite Muslim slum, on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, including the bomber.

At al-Kindi Hospital, Dr. Ahmed Mustafa said his facility was treating 32 wounded – four were in critical condition.

Lt Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator for Iraq, issued a statement of condolences to the victims.

“The terrorists know that the Iraqi people and the coalition are succeeding in the reconstruction of Iraq. They do not share the vision of hope for this new Iraq. They will do anything, including taking the lives of innocent Iraqis, to draw attention away from the extraordinary progress made since liberation.

“The terrorists will not succeed. Neither the coalition nor the Iraqi people will be intimidated from our path to a democratic Iraq. We will work with the Iraqi police to find those responsible and bring them to justice,” Bremer said.