85 Killed in Car Bombing in Iraq's Najaf

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, August 30, 2003

85 Killed in Car Bombing in Iraq's Najaf

Eighty-five Iraqis were killed and 229 others injured on Friday in the earlier huge car bombing in Najaf, Iraq.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

85 Killed in Car Bombing in Iraq's Najaf (2)

Eighty-five Iraqis were killed and 229 others injured on Friday in the earlier huge car bombing in Najaf, Iraq.

Earlier reports said that at least 17 were killed, including leading Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, and dozens of others wounded in the blast in Najaf, 180 km south of Baghdad.

But a doctor of the Najaf educational hospital said his hospital reported 81 dead and 200 wounded from the bombing while another person was reported dead and 29 wounded at the city's general hospital.

Many of the wounded were in serious condition, the doctor added. Witnesses said the bombing occurred at around 2:00 p.m.(1000GMT), when people began to flood out of the Imam Ali mosque, one of the most holy shrines for Shiite Muslims in Iraq, after hearing Friday prayers delivered by Hakim.

The killing was later confirmed by the incoming president of Iraqi Governing Council Ahmed al-Chalabi, who blamed the incident on loyalists to the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, denounced the deadly bombing as a terrorist attack to stall reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) based in Tehran, had spent 20 years in exile in Iran before he returned to Iraq following the ouster of Saddam by coalition forces in April.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Victim of Terrorism and US Policy: Commentary

UN HQ Bomb in Iraq Kills 20, Including Top Envoy

Martin Luther King's Dream Hard to Be Fulfilled ( 23 Messages)

China's Economy Faces Stiff Challenges: Minister ( 3 Messages)

China's 150 million mu Forests Plagued by Exotic Pests ( 3 Messages)

Is a Good Husband Worth More Than a Good Job? ( 2 Messages)

Poll Shows More Americans Wouldn't Vote for Bush ( 15 Messages)