Local residents deeply affected by suicide bombing near coalition HQ

[lebkuchen]

The U.S. military said 20 people died and 63 were wounded. Among the injured were three U.S. soldiers and three U.S. contractors, military officials said. Several media outlets reported that two Americans were killed, information that military officials could not confirm.

Some bodies were burned beyond recognition and investigators are still trying to determine identities. One soldier checking ID cards was knocked down and miraculously got back up while victims around him were incinerated, a senior military official said.

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In the back streets, behind al-Bayati’s pizzeria, Iraqis held funerals for the dead. At one wake, men sipped hot coffee under a brightly colored tent and mourned a man named Sargown, a 26-year-old security guard whom they buried Monday morning. He was among six Iraqi security workers subcontracted through DynCorp, a U.S. contractor providing services in Iraq to the U.S. State Department.

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He was also concerned with the fate of his cousin, Giyath, 24, whose burnt cell phone was found among the dead.

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