Mortar rounds and car bomb kill 24 in Baghdad

A pair of mortar rounds followed minutes later by a car bomb blasted Baghdad’s Karradah district today, killing a total of 24 people and wounding 46, police said.

The explosions occurred mid-morning in a religiously mixed neighbourhood controlled by a major Shiite party after President George Bush approved plans to send more US and Iraqi troops into Baghdad to curb rising sectarian violence.

Police Colonel Abbas Mohamed Salman, who gave the casualty figures, said the blasts occurred at around 10am local time.

Earlier, gunmen killed four security guards outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad during a drive-by shooting, police said.

The killings occurred outside the al-Rahman mosque in the Mansour district of western Baghdad, said Iraqi police 1st Lieutenant Maitham Abduz Razaq.