Wedding party blast in Baghdad kills 11

updated 12:56 p.m. ET Oct. 31, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber struck a wedding party in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 11 people and wounding 21 outside the bride’s home, police said.

The bomber drove an explosives-rigged sedan into a crowd of Shiite celebrants in the northeastern Shaab neighborhood, police Lt. Ahmed Mohamed said.

Weddings and funerals are in Iraq are relatively easy targets for suicide bombers hoping to spark sectarian reprisals and push Iraq into a full-blown civil war.

Five children were among those hospitalized, said Dr. Qasim al-Suweadi of the nearby al-Sadr hospital.

Many of the wounded children were burned over much of their bodies. AP Television News video from the hospital showed victims in obvious pain.

One girl, who appeared to be no older than 4, had most of the hair burned from her head, tiny pierced earrings still in place in her badly burned ear. Most of her body was burned as well.

Video from the scene showed two minibuses completely charred by fire. Friends and relatives — some screaming, some apparently numb — walked among wreckage and scattered body parts.

Initial reports had said at least 15 people had been killed by the blast.

Sunni militant groups including al-Qaida use car bombs against civilians in Shiite and mixed areas in Iraq under a campaign U.S. and Iraqi officials say is meant to spark a sectarian civil war. 

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