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11 killed, 22 wounded in Baghdad suicide-car bombing

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-23 22:29

BAGHDAD -- The death toll from a suicide car bombing which targeted the convoy of Iraq's labor minister on Thursday morning, rose to 11 with 22 others injured, an Interior Ministry source said.

An Iraqi policeman inspects a burnt police vehicle at the scene of a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad October 23, 2008. [Xinhua]

"Our latest reports said that 11 people were killed and 22 others wounded by the suicide car bombing that struck the convoy of Mahmoud Jawad al-Radhi, the minister of labor, in the Bab al-Sharji area in central Baghdad, " the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Three of Radhi's bodyguards were among the killed, while four of them among the wounded, the source said.

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The powerful blast also destroyed two of the convoy's vehicles and a police one, along with damaging three civilian cars, the source added.

Radhi was not at the convoy during the attack, he said.

Earlier, the source put the toll at nine killed and 10 others injured.

A Xinhua correspondent in central Baghdad heard a powerful explosion and saw a plume of grey smoke rising above the busy area in downtown Baghdad.

Deadly attacks continue in Iraq despite the US and Iraqi officials announced a relative lull in violence during the past months.