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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| Bomb kills 22 in Iraq bank queue | |
| 2005-06-14 | |
| At least 22 people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Police say most of the dead were civil servants lining up outside a government-owned bank to get their salaries or pensions. They believe the bomber walked up to the queue with up to 30kg (66lbs) of explosives hidden under his clothes. Among the 50 people wounded were 10 children, who had small stalls on the side of the road. The explosion took place near a bridge over the road, and people were killed both on the bridge and on the ground, the Associated Press news agency reported. The blast outside the al-Rafidain bank also set at least two nearby cars on fire and sent glass and rubble flying into the street. At least one report says bodies are trapped under the rubble. "I came here to get my wages and I brought my grandson with me who insisted on accompanying me," Hussein Mohammed, a 70-year-old retired employee of the Northern Oil Company with his head swathed in bandages, told AP. "The bomb exploded as we queued outside the bank," he added. Kirkuk, 290km (180miles) north of Baghdad, is an ethnically mixed city wanted by the Kurds as the capital of their autonomous region in the north. It houses communities of Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen vying for control. Correspondents say the city, a major oil-producing centre, has been the focus of intense ethnic rivalry since Saddam Hussein's fall from power. The bombing came a day after four separate attacks killed at least 11 people in Iraq. More than 900 people, mostly Iraqis, have died in insurgent attacks across the country since the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafaari took office six weeks ago.
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| Posted by:Steve |