Twenty dead as truck rams into Baghdad crowd

A truck driving at high speed slammed into a bus stop in a town south of Baghdad today, killing about 20 people and wounding 15, police said.

The truck hit a group of Iraqis in Al-Wahada, 22 miles south of Baghdad, as they were waiting for buses to the capital, said police Lt. Muhammed Al-Shemari.

He said it didn’t appear to be an accident because the truck, an empty fuel tanker, didn’t have a flat tyre or any other obvious mechanical problems that would have caused the crash.

The driver fled the overturned truck but was caught by witnesses and turned over to police, Al-Shemari said. Other witnesses found the body of a person in the cabin of the vehicle, he said.

The cause of the crash was being investigated.

Scores of people are killed each week in Iraq by roadside bombs and car bombs, many of which are driven by suicide attackers. But there have been few reports of attacks during which a driver has ploughed into a crowd in a vehicle without explosives hidden inside.