Date:29/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/29/stories/2006092901411800.htm

International

22 killed in Iraq blasts, shootings

BAGHDAD: A car bomb killed five persons on Thursday and wounded another 34 after it exploded near a restaurant in central Baghdad, police said.

Bombing and shootings killed at least 21 persons in and around Baghdad while police reported finding 40 bodies.

The bomb exploded at noon near a restaurant in central Baghdad. Many of the injured had serious burns and some were not expected to survive, police said.

The blast came after two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 more injured when a suicide car bomb slammed into a checkpoint in northeast Baghdad, the police said.

U.S. soldiers killed

Two U.S. soldiers were killed in two incidents in the volatile Anbar province, said the U.S. military on Thursday.

— AP,Xinhua