IRAQ: Two bombs exploded near a petrol station in Baghdad's western Mansour district on Thursday (January 4), killing at least 13 people and wounding 22, police said

The first blast was a roadside bomb that hit people lining up for fuel at the petrol station, they said. When police arrived on the scene to help, a car bomb exploded. "They were distributing fuel to people. They are innocent people, they just were queuing up to have fuel. We are tired about this situation. All we want is bombing and kidnapping to stop" said Alla, a worker of the station. Mansour is an upscale neighbourhood with a mixed population of Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs. There has been a relative lull in major attacks and violence over the Eid al-Adha holiday, which ended on Wednesday. U.S. Major General William Caldwell warned on Wednesday that U.S. and Iraqi forces were braced for a possible violent backlash after Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday and an illicitly filmed video of the hanging showed him being taunted by Shi'ite officials just before his death. The video has inflamed sectarian tensions in a country already on the brink of civil war. U.N. statistics said an average of more than 100 people a day are killed in bombings, mortar attacks and sectarian death squad killings.

ITN Source | January 4, 2007

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