Suicide car bomb kills 106 in Iraq

Mon 28 Feb 2005
Suicide car bomb kills 106 in Iraq

AT least 106 people were killed today when a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd applying for work at a government office south of Baghdad.

More than 130 were injured by the blast in Hilla, 60 miles from the Iraqi capital.

The blast came a day after Iraq announced the capture of a key insurgent leader - Saddam Hussein’s half brother - in neighbouring Syria.

The death toll is thought to be the biggest from a car bombing since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The suicide attacker drove into the crowd of job hunters at the government office in Hilla and detonated the explosives, witnesses said.

Dozens of bodies could be seen lying on the ground after the blast, and half a dozen ambulances ferried casualties to a nearby hospital.

The huge blast damaged nearby shops and parked cars.

A second car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Musayyib, about 20 miles north of Hilla, killing at least one policeman and wounding several others.