Car bomb kills 14 in Baquba, wounds 70

"Fourteen people have been killed and 70 injured, many seriously, in the car bombing," said doctor Ammar Subhi Zidan at Khalis hospital on Tuesday.

He said the attack, described as the bloodiest car bombing since the handover of power, took place around 4:15 pm (12:15 GMT).

The bomb exploded near a house where a memorial service was being held for two Iraqis killed in an attack on Sunday in Baquba, said General Walid Abd al- Salaam, police chief of the Diyala province.

US troops rushed to the scene of the attack as people in the area fired shots into the air in the chaos that ensued.

The US military had no immediate confirmation of the incident.

Baquba, 60km north of Baghdad, was the scene of street fighting and attacks in late June that killed dozens of people, mostly policemen and fighters.

Basra blast

In another incident a roadside bomb was detonated as a convoy of oil security guards drove past in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, killing a passer-by and wounding two others, police at the scene said.

Witnesses said the security guards, part of a force set up to protect Iraq's oil infrastructure, were unharmed.

Last month, exports were halted entirely for several days after the two main southern pipelines feeding Iraq's export terminals, were blown up.

Motorist killed

In Baghdad an Iraqi civilian motorist was shot dead by US troops on Tuesday as he tried to overtake a military convoy, according to police and witnesses.

He was shunted into a wall by a military vehicle and shot three times at close range, one witness said.

US troops apparently thought they were under attack, said an Iraqi policemen on the scene. However, no weapons were found in the car.

US soldiers refused to comment and left the scene.

The victim lay in a pool of blood, his face covered with a blood-soaked cloth, as his distraught father vowed to join the insurgency against the foreign forces in Iraq.

"God curse the Americans!" he shouted. Relatives at the scene said the victim had been due to get married on Thursday.


Aljazeera + Agencies
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