IRAQ: An explosion at a crowded market in Baghdad yesterday killed at least seven Iraqis, including three policemen, and wounded 13, medical staff said.
Elsewhere, Shia Mehdi Army militiamen clashed with US troops in the capital and in the holy city of Najaf to the south, and also engaged in sporadic fighting with British troops in Basra, where three soldiers were wounded.
The apparent bomb blast in the Bayaa district of southern Baghdad left body parts strewn around the market and blood and flesh coated on walls. It was not clear whether the Iraqi police, regarded by guerrillas as collaborators, had been the intended target.
A US military convoy had passed by shortly before.
The unassuming neighbourhood, home to both Sunni and Shia Muslims, was not an obvious target.
Meanwhile an explosion ripped through the Four Seasons hotel in Baghdad yesterday wounding up to eight people, Arab television stations reported.
The Qatar-based station Al Jazeera quoted witnesses as saying that eight foreigners, including two Americans, were hurt in the blast. It said five people were injured in the explosion, including two Iraqi security guards and three foreigners.
Also yesterday US tanks opened fire from a base on the edge of Najaf after a mortar attack by Mehdi Army guerrillas loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, witnesses said. In Baghdad's Sadr City district, US soldiers also reportedly returned fire on several occasions against the cleric's gunmen.
Guerrillas fired several mortar rounds at a government building a day after US troops, backed by tanks, raided Sheikh Sadr's local office and arrested four aides.
Gunmen yesterday killed a senior police official in the central Iraqi city of Baquba, witnesses and medical sources said.
A group of assailants reportedly opened fire on Col Ali al-Azzawi in the central market of Baquba, 65 km north-east of Baghdad. At least one bystander suffered gunshot wounds before the attackers fled.
In Basra, meanwhile, three British soldiers were wounded when a grenade was thrown at their vehicle, a British military spokesman said. - (Reuters)