A suicide car bomber killed more than people and wounded dozens more today in an attack on a crowd in Iraq. In the deadliest incident since the end of the war, the bomber drove into people queuing outside a medical clinic in Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, police said. A health official in Babil province said the death toll could rise. Dia Mohammed, the director of Hilla General hospital, said most of the victims were recruits waiting to take medicals as part of the application process to join the Iraqi police and national guard.
A statement distributed to reporters by the Babil province police headquarters said: "A suicide car bomb hit a gathering of people who were applying for work in the security services. Dozens of bodies lay on the ground after the blast and passers-by helped pile body parts into blankets. Piles of shoes and tattered clothes were thrown into a corner. Many of those killed had been shopping at stalls across the road from the clinic.
Pools of blood could be seen on the street, and scorch marks infused with blood covered the walls of a nearby building. The blast, at 9. Angry crowds gathered chanting "Allah Akbar" God is great and demanded to know the fate of their relatives.
I was thrown several metres away and I had burns in my legs and hands, then I was taken to the hospital. Muhsin Hadi, 29, a recruit who suffered a broken leg in the blast, said: "I was lucky because I was the last person in line when the explosion took place. Suddenly there was panic and many frightened people stepped on me. I lost consciousness and the next thing I was aware of was being in the hospital," he said.
In London, Tony Blair pledged that British forces would help the Iraqi government track down those responsible. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those who have been killed and with those injured. We are determined to help the Iraqi government and security forces bring these terrorists to justice. A second attack took place in Musayyib, about 20 miles north of Hilla, where a car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, killing at least one policeman and wounding several others, police said.
