Baghdad suicide bomb kills 27, mostly children

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By Peter Graff
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle near U.S. troops surrounded by a crowd of children in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 27 people and wounding at least 67 more, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

A duty policeman at the Kindi Hospital said 25 bodies and 25 wounded had arrived there. "Most of them are children," he said.

U.S. troops said one U.S. soldier was among those killed and three were injured.

"The vehicle, laden with explosives, drove up to a (U.S. military) Humvee before detonating. Many Iraqi civilians, mostly children, were around the Humvee at the time of the blast," U.S. military spokesman Sgt David Abrams said.

The U.S. military denied earlier police reports troops had been handing out sweets.

"The car bomber made a deliberate decision to attack one of our vehicles as the soldiers were engaged in a peaceful operation with Iraqi citizens," said Major Russ Goemaere, another spokesman.

"The terrorist undoubtedly saw the children around the Humvee as he attacked."

A Reuters reporter at Kindi hospital saw at least a dozen coffins loaded into cars at the morgue.

"My son was lucky: he was injured by a piece of shrapnel that lodged in his head. All the rest of his friends died," said Abu Mohammed, a gray bearded man in white robes.

A Reuters television cameraman at the scene said the vehicle blew up near houses, reducing parts of three to rubble. Women in the street screamed in anger and sorrow near pools of blood.

The incident was similar to a triple car bomb attack near an American convoy in September last year in which 41 people were killed, 34 of them children. Continued ...