A bomb blew up a kerosene tanker and killed at least 35 people Saturday in a Shiite slum in Baghdad, while Iraqi authorities announced the capture of a leader of the group believed to be behind the 2004 attack on a U.S. military mess hall.
The bomb that struck Sadr City was hidden in a barrel near the tanker as scores of people were waiting to buy fuel, police Col. Saad Abdul-Sada said. The area was more crowded than usual because families were seeking to stock up on fuel for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, he said, according to the AP.
Seventeen women were among the 35 dead, Abdul-Sada said, adding that casualties were expected to rise. He said at least 36 people were injured.
Also Saturday, five apparent death squad victims were turned in to the morgue in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. The bodies were shot in the head and chest and had been found dumped into the Tigris river near Suwayrah, 25 miles south of the capital.
An American contractor working for the State Department died Friday in a rocket attack in the southern city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy said.
Meanwhile, authorities said they captured a leader of the Sunni group Ansar al-Sunnah, which has claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks, including the December 2004 explosion at a U.S. military mess hall in Mosul that killed 22 people.
Muntasir Hamoud Ileiwi al-Jubouri, an alleged leader of Ansar al-Sunnah, and two of his aides were captured by Iraqi and U.S. forces late Friday near Muqdadiyah, 50 miles northeast of Baghdad, said Brig. Qassim al-Mussawi, spokesman for the General Command of the Armed Forces.
