BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) – A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle Wednesday near a U.S. military convoy and large group of Iraqi children in Baghdad, killing 27 people, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.
Iraqi police said most of the dead were children. The attack also left 20 people wounded.
The U.S. military said at least seven children and a U.S. soldier died in the attack. Three U.S. soldiers were wounded.
The soldiers were handing out treats to the children when the bomb went off, police said.
The attack – which happened around 10:50 a.m. (2:50 a.m.ET) in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of al-Jaddeda – also set a nearby house on fire, police said.
“The car bomber made a deliberate decision to attack one of our vehicles as the soldiers were engaged in a peaceful operation with Iraqi citizens,” Maj. Russ Goemaere said in the statement. “The terrorist undoubtedly saw the children around the Humvee as he attacked. The complete disregard for civilian life in this attack is absolutely abhorrent.”
Since the start of the war, 1,756 U.S. troops have died in Iraq.
In another suicide attack, a bomber detonated himself late Tuesday inside the al-Kebir Sunni Mosque in the ethnically mixed city of Jalawlah, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Baquba, killing two people and wounding 16 others, police said.
According to a police official, the bomber was wearing an explosives-packed vest.
Jalawlah is a mixed town of Kurds and Arabs.
Insurgents launched three separate attacks on Iraqi police in western Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday, police said.
One member of the Quick Reaction Team was killed by gunmen in Ameri on his way to work, police said.
About 30 minutes later, a gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in Mansur, wounding one, police said. Later, at about 10 a.m., two police officers and three civilians were wounded in a gunfight in Nafaq al Shurta.
On Tuesday, gunmen killed Ali Younis al-Shama, the head of the International Organization of Iraqi Human Rights, and three others in his office.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/07/13/iraq.main/index.html
And the blood bath continues…Shame