Baghdad Square Targeted With Car Bombs; IED Kills Iraqi Children, Troops

American Forces Press Service

Jan. 22, 2007 – Two car bombs detonated at a Baghdad market today, killing and injuring dozens of civilians, U.S. military officials reported. The two car bombs targeted Iraqis at a local market in the Rusafa section of the Iraqi capital. Soldiers from 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, heard the explosions while operating in a nearby area of Rusafa.

Following the explosion, the unit observed Iraqi police and Iraqi emergency services quickly responding to Al-Tairrah Square, policing up the wounded and taking them to a local hospital for medical treatment. Iraqi emergency services are still at the site. Initial reports from the Iraqi police indicate that 60 Iraqi civilians died and 152 more were wounded by the car bomb blasts.

Elsewhere, four people were killed and seven others wounded from an improvised-explosive-device detonation Jan. 19 in Yusufiyah. While out on a combat patrol, soldiers of the 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and the U.S. Army's 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, observed a group of local nationals gathered near a bridge just south of Yusufiyah, a town about 10 miles southwest of Baghdad.

Iraqi troops went to talk to the local nationals while the U.S. soldiers provided security. While the Iraqi troops were searching the locals, an IED detonated on the northwestern side of the bridge, killing four people and injuring seven.

Of the four killed, two were Iraqi children, ages 1 and 5, and two were Iraqi army troops. Among the wounded, five were local nationals and two were Iraqi army soldiers.

After the incident, a local ambulance arrived to evacuate the wounded. While en route to the hospital, the ambulance struck an IED, resulting in some damage, but no injuries or fatalities. The injured were eventually evacuated and received medical treatment.

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