Car Bombs Kill at Least 15 People in Baghdad and Northern Iraq

Iraqis gather around a scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006. A car bomb exploded near a crowded bus stop in eastern Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Kamaliyah during morning rush hour, killing 10 people and wounding 26, police said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) (Karim Kadim - AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb exploded near a crowded bus stop in eastern Baghdad during morning rush hour on Wednesday, killing 11 people and wounding 27 in a mostly Shiite area, police said.

In northern Iraq, two suicide car bombers attacked an Iraqi army base, killing four soldiers and wounding 10, an officer said.

The bus stop blast in Baghdad's Kamaliyah neighborhood went off about 50 yards from the Shiite al-Rasoul mosque but did not damage the small building, according to police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani and police Maj. Mahir Hamad.

"A Volkswagen car exploded right near the bus stop, hitting a group of people, including women and children who were waiting to take a bus to a fruit and vegetable market," said one witness, Abu Haider al-Kaabi.

As ambulances and Iraqi police raced to the scene, Iraqi and U.S. soldiers briefly closed off the area.

Later, people were allowed to search the street to see if the casualties included their relatives. The wreckage of the bomber's car and other damaged vehicles were towed from the scene. Young men swept debris from the street.

"I was working at a construction site nearby when the bomb exploded. My friends and I raced to the bus stop and took six of the wounded people to a nearby hospital in our cars," said Mohammed Saadoun, 34. He said they also helped to remove three charred bodies from the scene.

In the northern Iraq attack, troops opened fire on the bombers as they drove up to the headquarters of the Iraqi army 2nd Battalion, and the attackers set off their explosives right outside, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin, who provided the casualty figures.

The base is 25 miles southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and its soldiers are in charge of protecting the area's oil pipelines.

[In a separate incident, Reuters reported that two car bombs exploded simultaneously in a religiously mixed district of east Baghdad on Wednesday, killing five people and wounding 10.]

Violence between Sunni Arabs and Shiites has been roiling neighborhoods across the capital. On Nov. 23, suspected Sunni insurgents carried out the deadliest single attack of the Iraq war by using bombs and mortars to kill 215 people in the capital's Shiite slum of Sadr City.

On April 16, a bomb hidden in a shopping bag on a minibus exploded near the al-Rasoul mosque, killing at least three passengers and wounding six, police said.