Suicide attacker detonates car bomb in central Baghdad

A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in a commercial district in western Baghdad today, killing at least six people and injuring more than 50, authorities said.

A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in a commercial district in western Baghdad today, killing at least six people and injuring more than 50, authorities said.

Bloodied bodies, shattered glass and debris littered the street in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Jamiyah. Residents and relief workers collected human remains and put them into plastic bags.

At least 13 vehicles were wrecked and the engine of the suicide car was hurled some 50 meters away, officials at the scene of the blast said.

* US aircraft and tanks attacked rebel positions as fierce fighting erupted early today in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, killing 10 people and injuring 92 others, hospital officials said.

The fighting came as US and Iraqi forces searched for weapons caches and targeted "pockets of insurgents and terrorists" in the Shi'ite stronghold, the military said in a statement.

* A US Black Hawk helicopter crashed shortly after take off in southern Iraq today, wounding three crew members, the military said. It was not immediately clear why the aircraft went down near the city of Nasiriyah.