A suicide car bomb exploded in a crowded market of a town in northwest Iraq on Tuesday, killing 30 Iraqis and wounding 45, police said.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A suicide car bomb exploded in a crowded market of a town in northwest Iraq on Tuesday, killing 30 Iraqis and wounding 45, police said.
The blast occurred at about 11 a.m. in Tal Afar, 420 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, as many people were shopping in the town's main open marketplace, said Brig. Najim Abdullah, Tal Afar's police chief.
He said the 30 people killed and 45 wounded all appeared to be civilians since no Iraqi security forces or US soldiers were in the area at the time.
Abdullah first said the blast was caused by a car bomb set off by remote control, but later said police examining the scene determined it was a suicide car bomber.
Tal Afar, 150 kilometers east of the Syrian border, is located in an area where Iraq's Sunni-led insurgents have been active, making it difficult for coalition forces to maintain security in a large northwestern region of Iraq stretching to the Syrian border.