At least 18 killed in Baghdad suicide bomb
Tuesday, 26, Jan 2010 10:46
By inthenews.co.uk staff.
At least 18 people are reported to have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Reports claim a suicide car bomber detonated a vehicle close to the government's forensic headquarters, with a further 80 people believed to have been injured in the attack.
"The building collapsed soon after the explosion. Dozens of people usually work in the (forensics) institute," an interior ministry official told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.
The bomb went off in the Karrada area of the capital, following a day of bloodshed yesterday which killed dozens.
A rise in attacks in Baghdad has occurred in the last few months, with more being warned ahead of the March 7th vote in the country.
Yesterday's triple bomb attack at hotels used by western businessmen and journalists have been linked to the execution of Saddam Hussein's former enforcer and cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, otherwise known as Chemical Ali.
Al-Majid was executed by hanging a week after being sentenced to death for the fourth time over the gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988.
Saddam's cousin has already been sentenced to death three times by courts in Iraq; for the al-Anfal campaign targeting Kurds in the 1980s, crushing a Shia Muslim revolt in 1991 and launching a purge against Shia Muslims in Baghdad's Sadr City in 1999.