BAGHDAD (AP) - A parked car bomb exploded in a crowded area near a medical complex in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 30, officials said. The blast occurred at about 9:30 a.m. in the central Bab al-Muadham neighborhood, where the Health Ministry and the central morgue are located. AP Television News footage showed U.S. soldiers examining the crumpled wreckage from the car bomb, with pools of blood and debris scattered on the ground. Police and hospital officials said the nine killed were civilians but two Iraqi soldiers were among the 31 wounded. The death toll rose after several injured people died in the hospital.
Elsewhere in the capital, a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol at an intersection in a northeastern neighborhood, killing one civilian and wounding eight other people, including six soldiers and two civilians, police said.
"We're grasping at straw here, how can we journalists continue to do our job, if the US military is on the verge of a victory? Can't let that happen."