Car bomb rocks central Iraqi city of Hilla

A car bombing rocked a central Iraqi city late Saturday, killing 15 people and wounding dozens others, Qatar-based al-Jazeera news channel reported. The blast took place around 9:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) in a busy district in central Hilla, said the channel, adding 10 civilian cars were on fire and nearby shops were damaged, but the presumed target remained unknown.

Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad, was under control of a Polish-led multinational force.

The incident came when the official return of Iraqi sovereignty due on June 30 was only four days away.

A new wave of violence has spread over the country in the run-up of the power handover, with a series of apparently coordinated attacks targeting Iraqi police and pro-US parties killed over 100and injured 300 in the past two days.

Source: Xinhua