Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were killed and 13 others injured in a car bomb explosion in a marketplace in southwestern Baghdad on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

    The explosion occurred at about 1:10 p.m. (1010 GMT) when a booby-trapped car parked in a popular marketplace in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Bayaa, killing up to nine people and wounding 13 others, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The powerful blast also set fire to some ten civilian cars and destroyed several nearby shops and stalls, the source said.

    Iraqi security forces immediately sealed off the main roads leading to the scene while ambulances and civilians cars were evacuating the victims to nearby hospitals, he added.

    "I heard a very loud explosion and saw a plume of black smoke rising over the market," Haitham, a shopowner in the market told Xinhua.

    "It was so terrifying, there is blood and human flesh every where at the scene," Haitham said.

    Sporadic attacks continue in Baghdad despite the U.S. and Iraqi officials' announcement of a relative lull in violence during the past few months.



11 people wounded by two bomb attacks in Baghdad

   BAGHDAD, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Eleven people, including eight policemen, were injured in two roadside bomb explosions targeted police patrols in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

    "A roadside bomb struck a police patrol at about 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) in the Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, wounding five policemen and two bystanders," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Full story