Military

7 Killed as Car Bomb Explodes in Busy Baghdad Market

By VOA News
16 August 2007

Iraqi police say a car bomb blast in central Baghdad has killed at least seven people and wounded 15 others.

Police say the blast occurred in the parking lot of a commercial area during this Thursday, morning's rush hour.

In northeastern Iraq, rescuers are continuing to dig through rubble in areas devastated by Tuesday's four suicide truck bombings that killed at least 250 people. Officials say they expect the death toll to rise as more bodies are found.

The attacks targeted the minority Yazidis - a Kurdish-speaking community of an ancient religious sect. They are viewed by Sunni militants as infidels.

U.S. commanders have blamed al-Qaida for the attacks, and said they were designed to undermine the sense of progress that U.S. and Iraqi forces are creating.

Separately, the U.S. military announced Thursday, that two American soldiers were killed and six wounded during combat Wednesday in an area north of Baghdad.

In other news, the U.S. military says coalition forces have killed 19 terrorists and detained more than 40 suspects in coordinated raids in areas near Balad and Samara since last Thursday. It says the raids were aimed at disrupting al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists operating in the areas.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.