A bomb went off in a crowd of day laborers in central Baghdad on Wednesday, killing eight people and inuring 28, police said. All eight people died in the Baghdad bombing were civilians, though four police were among the injured, said police Lt. Bilal Ali said.
Meanwhile, British troops drove off gunmen who attacked the Basra governor's office, apparently to avenge a tribal leader killed the day before. Members of the Bani Assad tribe attacked the Basra governor's office because they believed provincial officials were behind the killing of a tribal leader Tuesday, according to an official trapped in the besieged building.
According to the AP, the tribesmen fled after British armored vehicles arrived. Basra Gov. Mohammed al-Waeli said one policeman died and four were wounded. Seven attackers were arrested, he said. Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on the city.
In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, armed clashes erupted between police and assailants in three predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods, police Lt. Col. Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said.
At least five gunmen were killed and six arrested, he said. The clashes took place one day after a suicide car bomber killed nine people in an attack on the Mosul headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a Kurdish party led by President Jalal Talabani.
Also Wednesday, a roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol north of Hillah, killing three troops and wounding four, police 1st Lt. Osama Ahmed said. Hillah is a mostly Shiite city about 60 miles south of Baghdad.
On its part, the Iraqi army general command said order had been restored in the Shiite holy city of Karbala following street battles the day before between security forces and followers of anti-American cleric Mahmoud al-Hassani, which left 12 dead, including two Iraqi soldiers. The clashes erupted after police raided the cleric's office, ostensibly looking for weapons. Security forces rounded up 281 people in the wake of the clashes, the army statement said.
