Multiple Casualties in Iraq Bomb Attack--Mahmudiya,

[TexasLawyer]

Thursday 23 December 2004, 8:51 Makka Time, 5:51 GMT

A car bomb has exploded in the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, leaving many killed and wounded, according to the local hospital director. "There were many dead and wounded," said Dr Daud al-Tai, head of the hospital in Latifiya, a town near Mahmudiya. The doctor said he did not keep track of the casualties because many were taken to Baghdad.

The powerful blast ripped the Husainiya district, where there are numerous stores and homes, late on Wednesday. "Columns of smoke shot up in the sky after the blast, which destroyed at least four homes and 20 shops," one resident said.

Both Mahmudiya and Latifiya fall within a belt of towns south of Baghdad with a high rate of kidnappings and shootings and referred to by US soldiers as the "triangle of death".

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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/30AEA628-034A-49FD-9DD5-DBC99C09FFE8.htm

Pure tragedy.