GE employees killed in Baghdad bombing

US company General Electric said three of its employees and two accompanying security contractors were killed in Baghdad's car bombing today.

The first car bomb exploded at rush-hour today in one of central Baghdad’s busiest streets.

Iraqi civil defence spokesman Col Qadri Abdul-Latif said at least 12 people were killed, many in shops and a two-storey building that were heavily damaged in the blast, which occurred at Tahrir Square on the eastern end of the Jumhuria Bridge which crosses the Tigris river.

Later a second car bomber struck, this time near the town of Salman Pak, south-east of Baghdad.

Four people were killed and four others were injured.