Twin car bombs exploded near the compound of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians Monday, killing at least 22 civilians and injuring 42, police and hospital officials said. The target of the blasts was not the offices of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the country's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC, police said. According to sources, the target was a nearby building in which Sunni chieftains from Anbar province who have joined forces against al-Qaida in Iraq were meeting.
More than dozen cars were destroyed in the area, the AP reported.
Police said the bombs were planted in cars lined up at a gas station nearby. The blasts ripped a crater two yards wide in the asphalt. Sheikh Ali Hatem al-Sulaiman, deputy chief of Anbar province's biggest Sunni tribe and a leading member of the so-called Anbar Awakening Council, said six of their bodyguards were among those killed and 20 were wounded. According to the AP, he blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq.
South of Baghdad, American forces captured a suspected Shiite militia commander and one other suspect Monday in the latest of several days of raids in Shiite holy cities. Also Monday, the U.S. military announced the death of an American soldier, killed in a roadside bombing a day earlier.
Meanwhile, two CBS News journalists were missing in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Basra, the network said Monday. CBS said all efforts were under way to find the journalists, who were not identified by the network. It requested "that others do not speculate on the identities of those involved" until more information was available.
"CBS News has been in touch with the families and asks that their privacy be respected," the network added in a brief statement from its headquarters in New York.
