Four killed in Baghdad car blast

The powerful blast scattered debris across a wide area

At least four Iraqis have been killed by a car bomb near the coalition headquarters in Baghdad.

About 25 people were wounded in the explosion, which blew a crater in the street and set other vehicles alight.

Passers-by tended the injured and several ambulances rushed the victims to hospital.

The blast happened not far from where the head of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ezzedine Salim, was killed in a car bombing on 17 May.

Witnesses said a car blew up as it was travelling down Kindi Street in Harthiyah neighbourhood.

"There was a Mercedes car driving down the street and then it turned and suddenly blew up," said witness Mohammad Abbas.

"After that we didn't see anything."

The force of the blast scattered debris over a wide area and left a pall of smoke in the air.

Residents shocked

Another witness, Hamed Kamel, said he saw a person "cut in half" in front of a nearby home.

Passers-by tried to help the injured and collect human remains.

"This is somebody's skin," Reuters quoted a woman carrying body parts as telling a policeman.

A 60-year-old woman who lives nearby, Najlaa Farhad, she was performing noon prayers when the room was suddenly filled with smoke and dust. Her air conditioner was blown off the wall.

"I thought a rocket had hit my house," she told AP news agency. "All my curtains came off."

Alla Faleh Hassan, 14, said his father, Faleh Hassan, 40, was injured by flying glass in his arm and leg, and was taken to hospital.

It felt like our house was lifted into the air and came down with the bang," the boy said.

US officers said there were no prominent political figures in the area at the time of the Monday's bomb and they were uncertain of the target.