A car explosion on a busy Baghdad street Wednesday killed at least four people and injured some 30 others, according to Iraqi police.
Police officer Ali al-Raiby was cited by Reuters as saying that some kind of bomb had detonated in a street packed with pedestrians and workers in the northern Baghdad suburb.
Meanwhile, fighters loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr traded fire Wednesday with U.S. occupation forces near a
mosque in Kufa, and hospital officials said at least three Iraqis were killed and 16 others injured.
Many of the injured suffered shrapnel injuries from a mortar round which missed a U.S. convoy, witnesses said.
Elsewhere, mortar attacks on a police station near Fallujah killed one Iraqi civilian and injured three people, including a U.S. Marine, the military said Wednesday.
The station was hit by 60mm mortar rounds in the two
attacks, said Marine Capt. Jason Smith, of the 1st
Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, which controls the area.
Marines and Iraqi security forces are stationed at the
police compound in Kharma, a suburb of Fallujah, 60
kilometers west of Baghdad.
The Iraqi casualties were civilian bystanders hit by
flying shrapnel. The wounded Marine suffered minor
injuries, Smith said.
On the political level, Iran's Charge d'Affaires in Baghdad Hassan Kazemi Qomi said the Islamic Republic would cooperate with the Iraqi transitional government as it did with the governing council due to Iraq's importance. Quoted by IRNA on Wednesday, he expressed hope the Iraqi transitional government would do its utmost to hold elections in that country.
Qomi highlighted the important role the Iraqi transitional
overnment would play in establishing national parliament, codifying permanent constitution and holding elections, and voiced Iran's determination to bolster ties with Iraq, help its government and contribute to reconstruction work in the neighboring country.
"Tehran tries to have close relations with Iraqi transitional government like what it had previously with the governing council," he noted.
"Iran hopes the transitional government would prepare the grounds for holding elections and establishing a popular government in Iraq. And in those circumstances Tehran would expand cooperation with such government," the Iranian official added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
