Scores of Iraqis were killed and wounded on Monday in separate incidents. In the most serios incident, at least 15 people were killed and some 80 wounded when a car bomb went off at the entrance to Baghdad's Green Zone.
Green Zone
A car bomb went off at the entrance to Baghdad's Green Zone, a fortified area that harbors the US Embassy and Iraqi government buildings, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 80. Eyewitnesses said a car raced towards the entrance and blew up before reaching it.
The explosion reported shortly before 9am, Major Phil Smith, a spokesman for the US army, said. Officials at Yarmouk Hospital said they were receiving dead and wounded from the explosion.
Second Baghdad blast
Less than an hour later, a second blast rocked the Iraqi capital's central Saadoun Street near a number of major hotels. An Iraqi interior ministry spokesman said four Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded.
It happened at 9:45am. Bursts of gunfire were heard after the blast and thick black smoke rose from the scene.
Mosul
In the north, a car bomb has exploded near a primary school in the city of Mosul on Monday killing seven people, including two children, Iraqi police said, according to Reuters.
Witnesses said the car was travelling through a southern neighbourhood of the city with two people inside on Monday blew up, possibly prematurely. Police said two children and three civilians were killed, as well as the two men inside the car.
Fallujah
Meanwhile, US warplanes early Monday bombed the Iraqi city of Fallujah, killing at least 11 people, hospital officials said. Doctor Adel Khamis of Fallujah general hospital said seven of the dead were women and children. A strike in the central al-Jumhuriyah area killed nine people, including three women and four children, said Dr. Adil Khamis of Fallujah General Hospital. Twelve were wounded, including six women and three children, he said, according to The AP. A second strike in the city's southern Al-Shuhada (Martyrs) neighborhood killed two more people, Khamis conveyed.
The US military said it had hit a building where "anti-Iraqi forces" were moving weapons. A second raid targeted followers of al Qaeda activist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the US military said.
Shooting attack
In another incident, a senior official at Iraq's science and technology ministry was shot dead along with a female civil servant by unknown attackers in Baghdad, a spokesman for the interior ministry said.
Other incidents
Elsewhere, a roadside bomb detonated in the city of Ramadi, killing two Iraqis. "Two people were killed and six others injured in a bomb blast... in the west of the city," said Atallah Dlimi, a police lieutenant in Ramadi, AFP.
A 13-year-old school girl was killed by mortar fire in a residential area of Baquba, police said, adding that another seven people were injured in the attack. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
