- Note - This is the third bomb today, including one that
'destroyed a Humvee' but apparently didn't cause any injuries to the troops
in it... -ed
-
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- BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A large
explosion ripped through a restaurant in central Baghdad on New Year's
Eve, killing five people. Witnesses said the blast was caused by a car
bomb.
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- Rescuers were seen pulling people from the building,
as sirens wailed and ambulances sped to the area near the former U.S. Embassy.
Five people died, said Lt. General Ahmed Kadhem, deputy Iraqi interior
minister and Baghdad chief of police.
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- The restaurant, called Nabil, had advertised a New Year's
Eve party with live music and bellydancing. Several cars outside the restaurant
were wrecked and in flames.
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- Gunfire was heard after the explosion. U.S. soldiers
were seen heading to the scene, and U.S. military helicopters hovered overhead.
Firefighters trained hoses on the flames. A large crater was visible on
a sidestreet next to the restaurant, which is on the corner of a city block.
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- U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police had stepped up security
in Baghdad on Wednesday, erecting more razor wire and checkpoints in key
areas. Military officials have reported the possibility of attacks by insurgents
over the holiday period.
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- Earlier in Baghdad, a car bomb exploded as a U.S. convoy
passed on a street full of shops, destroying a Humvee, Iraqi police Sgt.
Thabet Talib said. An 8-year-old Iraqi boy was killed and 21 other people
were wounded, including five U.S. soldiers and five Iraqi civil defense
personnel, authorities said.
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- Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored
Division, said it was not clear what kind of bomb caused the blast.
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- Later in the evening, a bomb hidden in shrubs outside
a restaurant in Baghdad went off as a U.S. military convoy passed, wounding
three American soldiers and three Iraqi civilians.
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- Also Wednesday, gunfire erupted as hundreds of Iraqis
marched in protest over fears of Kurdish domination in the oil-rich northern
city of Kirkuk. Police said two people were killed.
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- Near the southern city of Basra, a South Korean was killed
in an ambush and resulting gunbattle between Romanian soldiers and Iraqi
insurgents, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday. There
was no immediate confirmation of the report or whether the victim was a
soldier or a civilian.
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- Despite fears at home over casualties, South Korea has
pushed forward with a plan to send dispatch 3,000 troops to Iraq, in addition
to 465 medics and military engineers already there. Two South Korean civilian
engineers were killed by insurgents in November.
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- Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved.
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- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031231/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_blast
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