A bomb packed in a suitcase exploded near a hotel catering to religious pilgrims in the sacred Shiite Muslim city of Karbala on Monday, wounding at least six people, witnesses said. The bomb was placed beside the car of the hotel’s owner and detonated at about 9 p.m., shattering windows along the street, said Zuheir Abdel-Rahman, a resident. The hotel is about 150 yards from the shrine of Imam Hussein, which was not damaged, he said. Abdel-Rahman, reached by telephone, said six Iraqis, most of them hotel workers, were taken by ambulance to the city’s Husseini Hospital. A spokesman for the Polish-led multinational force charged with security in Karbala, about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad, confirmed the explosion but had no report on casualties. The violence came a day after guerrillas shot down a CH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying dozens of U.S. soldiers about to begin leave. Sixteen were killed and 20 wounded in the deadliest day for U.S. troops since the six-month occupation began. Full Story
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