A FUEL tanker exploded in a packed Baghdad neighborhood Christmas Eve, apparently leaving some dead, a US military spokesman said. "It was a fuel tanker. It appears there was a loss of life," said First Cavalry Division Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton. Several homes were burnt and 19 wounded in the blast in the wealthy Mansour district, not far from some foreign embassies, a police officer said. A huge fireball ripped through the area near a major telecommunications tower, according to eyewitnesses. Haidar al-Mussawi, a member of the Iraqi National Congress party, said the blast about 300 metres (yards) away damaged his home. "A fire ball shot into the sky and blew out the windows of my house," he said. The explosion occurred near a checkpoint on the road to the offices of the Iraqi National Congress, the party of prominent secular politician Ahmed Chalabi, other residents said.
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