A bomb went off Saturday in a Shiite district of Baghdad, killing 19 people and injuring 58, police said. The explosion occurred at about 6:30 a.m. near a food stand in Sadr City where men gather to wait for jobs as day laborers, police Maj. Hashim al-Yaser said. Witnesses and police said the bomb has been planted in a site where the attackers knew large crowds of men would gather shortly after dawn.
"It was a huge explosion," one eyewitness told the AP. "We carried many of the injured to ambulances and helped remove the bodies."
Police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said 19 people died and 58 injured. Many of the injured were rushed to nearby Imam Ali Hospital.
Also Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-packed vest inside a police station in the Iraqi town of Qaem near the Syrian border, killing five policemen and wounding 10, police said.
Elsewhere, also uncovered the bodies of 19 people who apparently had been kidnapped and tortured, four in Baghdad and 15 in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of the capital.
