Hilla, Iraq: Car bomb near children's hospital kills 26

The wreckage of a vehicle used in a car bomb attack lies on a road in Hilla, about 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, July 24, 2007. A suicide car bomb killed 22 people and wounded 66 in a crowded market in Hilla, police said. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ)

Suicide car bomb kills 24 at Iraq children's hospital
07.24.07, 4:17 AM ET
HILLA, Iraq Thomson Financial - A suicide car bomb exploded across the street from a children's hospital in the Iraqi city of Hilla, killing at least 24 people and wounding 66, police and medical officials said.
'Most of the wounded were women and children, and the blast destroyed 15 vehicles and about 20 nearby shops,' said Lieutenant Eid al-Shammari of the local police.
Doctor Ali al-Rubaie of the Hilla hospital confirmed the casualties, adding that 22 of those wounded had serious injuries, including severe burns.
'We received 24 bodies, and the wounded have been evacuated to two hospitals,' Rubaie said.
The mostly Shiite town, 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Baghdad, has seen increasing attacks in recent weeks, and the bombing took place as senior US and Iranian officials were preparing to meet to discuss security in Iraq.
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Suicide bombing kills at least 22
Attack also wounds dozens in Hilla's commercial center

Megan Greenwell, Washington Post
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
A U.S. soldier patrols near the wreckage of one of the ve...

(07-24) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- A suicide car bomber struck the center of a major Shiite city in southern Iraq this morning, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens as the streets were packed with shoppers and people on their way to work, police said.
The explosion occurred at 9 a.m. in a commercial district in Hilla, according to provincial police. Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, has been the site of some of the deadliest bombings, including a double suicide attack on March 6 that killed 120 people.
The attack came a day after a string of car bomb attacks left at least 17 people dead in Baghdad on Monday, many of them civilians killed by three blasts in one of the city's busiest neighborhoods.
In all, at least 42 Iraqis were killed nationwide on Monday, according to security officials who asked not to be identified because they feared retribution.
The first two bombs detonated nearly simultaneously just down the street from each other in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood. One targeted an Iraqi police patrol, the other an outdoor market where women browsed aisles of fruit and vegetables. Three police officers and six civilians were killed, and 14 people were injured, police said.
A short time later, a third car bomb exploded in a city plaza less than a mile away, killing three people in an attack that police speculated was linked to the first two. Two of the dead were police officers passing by, authorities said.
As American soldiers sorted through the rubble left by the blasts, a fourth car bomb detonated next to the U.S.-controlled Green Zone just across the Tigris River. The blast killed an additional four people, some of whom were eating lunch at a popular kebab restaurant near the line of cars approaching a checkpoint to enter the heavily fortified compound.
A fifth blast, caused by a minibus packed with explosives, killed one person in the eastern part of the city, police said.
The U.S. military reported the deaths of four American troops over the weekend. Three soldiers were killed Saturday in roadside bombings in Baghdad, south of the capital and the northern city of Samarra. A Marine was killed in combat Saturday in Anbar province.
Chronicle news services contributed to this report.
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Men carry coffins of victims, killed in Tuesday's bomb attack in Hilla, during a funeral in Najaf, 160 km (99 miles) south of Baghdad, July 25, 2007. REUTERS/Ali Abu Shish (IRAQ)

Suicide bomb kills 26 in Iraqi market

Haroon Siddique and agencies
Tuesday July 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A suicide bomb killed 26 people and wounded 70 in a crowded market south of Baghdad today, police said.
The attack took place close to a maternity hospital in the Shia town of Hilla, about 60 miles from the Iraqi capital.
The explosion destroyed 14 shops and set more than a dozen cars ablaze.
Two suicide bombers killed more than 60 people in Hilla in February.
Tens of thousands of US and Iraqi soldiers have been conducting offensives in and around Baghdad, seeking to stem the death toll from car bomb attacks, most of which are blamed on the Sunni Islamist organisation al-Qaida in Iraq.
Police also reported the discovery of 24 bodies, all with bullet wounds and showing signs of torture, around the Iraqi capital over the past 24 hours.