IRAQ: At least 10 people were killed when a petrol truck crashed into a commuter bus in Baghdad yesterday morning. The US military said the blast was caused by a road accident and had not been triggered by a bomb as earlier Iraqi police statements reported.
Meanwhile, the US said its forces had killed three attackers and wounded another as they tried to mount a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul.
Capt Jason Beck, a US military spokesman said of yesterday's incident in Baghdad: "Our ordnance experts surveyed the site and found no evidence of explosives. It was not consistent with a car bomb. It was a fuel truck that simply had a traffic accident."
A policeman directing traffic at the site had earlier said men driving the tanker had been following US military vehicles with the intention of driving into them.
He said the bodies of the dead were so badly burnt and mangled that it was impossible to identify them.
Several hours after the incident, workers were collecting debris from the blackened and deeply pitted road while uniformed policemen from the new Iraqi force attempted to sort out a massive traffic jam.
Two burnt-out engines and chunks of metal had been loaded into trailers by municipal employees.
Vehicle bombs have been used in a number of guerrilla attacks, including raids on UN headquarters in Baghdad and the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Initial news of the blast and deaths yesterday caused worry that unrest since the capture of Saddam Hussein on Sunday were continuing.
Several quarters of the capital erupted on Monday and Tuesday in demonstrations against his seizure. Residents remained in their homes for fear of being struck by bullets from random shooting.
North of the capital, US forces backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters launched a wide sweep, code-named "Operation Ivy Blizzard," against insurgents based at the town of Samarra. This operation was launched two days after resistance fighters mounted an ambush in Samarra against a US convoy, during which the US claimed to have killed 11 of the attackers.
On the diplomatic front, an Arab League delegation arrived here on a fact-finding mission, focusing on the state of the country's collapsing infrastructure. Meetings between the mission and Iraq's interim Governing Council should boost the credibility and legitimacy of the US-appointed body, which has little support amongst the Iraqi populace. - (Additional reporting Reuters)