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Suicide bomber hits Iraq college | |
(about 6 hours later) | |
A suicide bomber has killed at least 42 people and injured 55 in an attack at a college in eastern Baghdad, police say. | |
Witnesses said a man detonated his suicide jacket after being challenged by guards at the main entrance. | |
Earlier, at least four people were injured in a car bombing in the city's Karrada district, and one was killed in an explosion near the Iranian embassy. | |
A mortar was also fired into a Shia area in the south of Baghdad, injuring two people. | |
The attacks came a day after more than 40 people died in a truck bomb attack near a Sunni mosque in the town of Habbaniya, to the west of Baghdad. | |
At least 60 people were injured in the blast, which came only hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said sectarian killings had fallen as a result of the recent security surge. | At least 60 people were injured in the blast, which came only hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said sectarian killings had fallen as a result of the recent security surge. |
'Mehdi Army's college' | 'Mehdi Army's college' |
Most of the victims of Sunday's blast at the College of Administration and Economics were students, police and witnesses said. | |
Many of the victims were young students | |
"There was an explosion. I did not feel anything for 15 minutes and when I returned to consciousness, I found myself in the hospital," Muhanad Nasir, a 22-year-old student, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. | "There was an explosion. I did not feel anything for 15 minutes and when I returned to consciousness, I found myself in the hospital," Muhanad Nasir, a 22-year-old student, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. |
Higher Education Minister Abed Dhiab al-Uljaili said most of the victims were students who had gone to sit exams and that five guards were among the dead, AFP news agency reported. | |
The agency said terrified parents converged on the scene, some collapsing in horror at the sight of blood and flesh at the entrance to the building. | |
The college is part of al-Mustansiriyah university, Baghdad's second largest. | |
It is controlled by the powerful Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, and had received threats warning it to close, the BBC's Jane Peel in Baghdad says. | |
It is not the first time the university has been targeted. | |
Last month, more than 100 students were killed in a co-ordinated attack involving two car bombs and a suicide bomber at the university's main building. | Last month, more than 100 students were killed in a co-ordinated attack involving two car bombs and a suicide bomber at the university's main building. |