Truck bomb blast collapses main Baghdad highway
21 Mar 2007 13:13:09 GMT
Source: Reuters
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BAGHDAD, March 21 (Reuters) - Iraqi police detonated a huge truck bomb
near the Finance Ministry in Baghdad on Wednesday in a controlled explosion that collapsed part of the main highway linking the north and south of the capital.
The facade of the multi-storey ministry in Bab al-Muadham area in central Baghdad was also badly damaged in the blast, which police said wounded 12 people, including soldiers and policemen.
The building was empty because it was a national holiday marking the first day of spring.
Police said they discovered the truck bomb parked under the Mohammed al-Qassim highway
just metres from the ministry building. The explosives were hidden under a pile of lettuces.
They detonated the bomb in a controlled explosion but were apparently taken by surprise by the force of the blast, which reduced a section of the raised highway to rubble, punched holes in the ministry building and blew out its windows.