Six Iraqis and US soldier die in suicide bomb attack

A suicide car bomb exploded today near a checkpoint to the main complex housing US administrative offices in central Baghdad, killing six Iraqi civilians and one US soldier and injuring 25 people, the US military said.

The injured included two US soldiers and three Iraqi policemen.

The bomb, hidden inside an orange-and-white Baghdad taxi, exploded outside a three-feet-high concrete blast wall.

The wall shields cars driving up to a checkpoint just before a bridge spanning the Tigris River that leads into the so-called Green Zone, a sprawling area that houses the US-led coalition and is walled off from the rest of Baghdad.

“At 7.26am, what appeared to be a suicide bomber in a car pulled up to the checkpoint, and then three cars back from the checkpoint, detonated his bomb,” said Colonel John Murray of the US Army’s Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division.

About 10 Iraqi cars were lined up inside the blast barriers when the car bomb exploded.

“There was a long line of cars. Fortunately, the blast barriers worked in this case,” Murray said.

The blast incinerated three cars, reducing them to hulks of twisted, charred metal. Another five cars were badly damaged, some turned on their side from the force of the blast.

The explosion was so strong that it hurled the engine of the car carrying the bomb some 15 feet from the site of the blast.

Shattered glass from nearby shops littered the area. A column of thick black smoke rose from the blast site and drifted across Baghdad. Residents living in homes as far as 100 yards away from the blast reported shattered widows and doors becoming unhinged.

On January 17, a suicide truck bombing at a Green Zone gate in central Baghdad killed 24 people and wounded about 120.