Car bomb kills 18 in Baghdad

A parked car bomb exploded in a commercial district of central Baghdad yesterday, killing 18 people and wounding dozens more.

The bombing took place off a bridge in Tahrir Square, a district of clothing shops just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the US Embassy and much of the Iraqi government, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information. The policeman and a hospital official said 18 people died.The hospital official said 57 others were injured.The attack is the latest in a string of violence to grip Iraq’s capital after several months of relative calm that followed a surge of US forces last year.There also has been a sharp increase of US military deaths in recent days.Twelve Americans have been killed in the past four days, bringing the overall US military death toll since the start of the war to 3 987, according to an AP count.The US military said yesterday that soldiers had killed a young Iraqi girl after firing a warning shot at a woman who “appeared to be signaling to someone” along a road where several bombs had recently been found.The shooting occurred on Wednesday afternoon in the volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad.An exact location was not given in a military statement.The girl appeared to be “around 10 years old,” said Major Brad Leighton, a military spokesman.In its statement, the military said that “coalition forces fired a warning shot into a berm near a suspicious woman who appeared to be signaling to someone while the soldiers were in the area.A young girl was found behind the berm suffering from a gunshot wound.”Leighton said reports indicated that soldiers did not believe the woman was a potential suicide bomberNampa-APThe policeman and a hospital official said 18 people died.The hospital official said 57 others were injured.The attack is the latest in a string of violence to grip Iraq’s capital after several months of relative calm that followed a surge of US forces last year.There also has been a sharp increase of US military deaths in recent days.Twelve Americans have been killed in the past four days, bringing the overall US military death toll since the start of the war to 3 987, according to an AP count.The US military said yesterday that soldiers had killed a young Iraqi girl after firing a warning shot at a woman who “appeared to be signaling to someone” along a road where several bombs had recently been found.The shooting occurred on Wednesday afternoon in the volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad.An exact location was not given in a military statement.The girl appeared to be “around 10 years old,” said Major Brad Leighton, a military spokesman.In its statement, the military said that “coalition forces fired a warning shot into a berm near a suspicious woman who appeared to be signaling to someone while the soldiers were in the area.A young girl was found behind the berm suffering from a gunshot wound.”Leighton said reports indicated that soldiers did not believe the woman was a potential suicide bomber Nampa-AP