A car bomb attack has killed at least 17 people in the heart of Baghdad today.
Police said the explosion narrowly missed a US military convoy that passed by seconds before.
The explosion gouged a giant crater near Nasser Square on Saadoun Street, a densely populated commercial area with major hotels housing foreigners.
A reporter on the scene saw five dead bodies in the rubble. Several bloodied and burned victims, gasping for breath, were carried away from the area by residents. The bomb left 12 cars as burning wrecks.
Hospital officials at a nearby clinic said they had treated eight wounded.
A boy with injuries to his back was rushed into the emergency room, while another injured in the blast described working at a nearby laboratory when the explosion took place. "The flying glass hit my face and shoulder," he said.
"It is a tragedy, even non-Muslims would not do this to innocent people," said a former Iraqi army soldier, who witnessed the blast.
