Car bomb kills 15 in Baghdad: security official

03/03/2008| IslamWeb

A car bomb killed at least 15 people and wounded 45 in central Baghdad on Monday, an Iraqi security official said.

The bomb detonated near a labour ministry building in a commercial area of the Bab al-Muazam neighbourhood.

The wounded included ministry employees and students from the nearby Baghdad University, the official said.

The attack came as combined figures obtained from the interior, defence and health ministries showed that the total number of Iraqis killed in February rose by 33 percent over the previous month, reversing six months of falling death tolls.

The drop in violence during the six months to January was attributed to a surge in US troop numbers, the formation among Sunni tribes of anti-Qaeda fronts and Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr's freezing of the activities of his Mahdi Army militia.

PHOTO CAPTION

Medic helps a man wounded in car bombing in the Bab al-Mudham area of central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 3, 2008.

AFP