Car bomb explodes in Baghdad; 13 dead
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-28 14:37

A car bomb exploded on Wednesday outside a police station in the restive town of Baquba, just north of Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding scores, witnesses and a doctor said.

Fozia Azad (C), daughter of Pakistani hostage Azad Khan, holds a picture of her father as her mother Kausar Perveen (R) and sister Nazia Azad look on, in Islamabad, July 27, 2004. Pakistan appealed to Iraqi kidnappers on Tuesday to free two Pakistani hostages in the name of Islam, adding that no decision had been taken yet on whether to send troops to Iraq. [Reuters]

Ahmed Fouad, a doctor at a Baquba hospital, 40 miles north of the capital, said at least 13 people were killed in the explosion, but the full picture was not yet clear.

Hospital officials said as many as 80 people may have been wounded in the blast, which went off almost directly outside the police station at mid-morning, when the streets would have been crowded. The police station is in the center of town.

Baquba, a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite town which is home to many former members of the Iraqi army, has experienced frequent car-bombings and attacks over the past year.

Many of those have targeted Iraqi police and National Guard, who guerrillas regard as collaborators with U.S. and foreign troops stationed in Iraq.

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