Six killed in bomb blasts near Baghdad 'torture building'

Two car bombs detonated this morning in a central Baghdad residential neighbourhood, killing at least six people and injuring 43.

The blasts were near an Interior Ministry building where US troops found detainees who showed signs of torture, police said.

The explosions in the Jadiriyah neighbourhood reverberated through the city centre, and sent a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air and was followed by sporadic small arms fire.

Television news footage showed several residential buildings collapsed from the blast and a large crater in the road.

Firefighters joined neighbours to dig through the debris and under toppled blast barriers to pull victims from the rubble.

Police Capt. Nabil Abdel-qadir said the two car bombs were detonated behind the Interior Ministry building.

Six civilians were killed and three police officers were among the injured, he said.

US troops found up to 173 malnourished detainees – some showing signs of torture – in the building on Sunday. Most were believed to be Sunni Arabs, the main group in the insurgency.

The US said it would investigate the conditions of the detainees.