Scores killed, injured in explosion in Hella

Some 13 persons were killed and other 40 injured in a booby trapped car explosion in front of a mosque for the Shiites in Hella to the south of Baghdad, according to police sources.

In a separate incident, the police reported that one guard for the Iraqi minister of industry Osama al-Najafi was killed and another was injured in an armed attack west of Baghdad that targeted the procession of the minister. However, a source in the ministry of interior said that al-Najafi was not in his procession when the attack took place.

In Baghdad, one Booby trapped car went off before a restaurant in the center of the capital but no heavy losses were reported. Three Iraqis were killed and three bodies were found in various incidents in northeast Baghdad.

Concerning the internal political situation in Iraq, the Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari denied the existence of any real difference between him and the Iraqi President Jalal al-Talibani who recently accused him of taking decisions, without consultation.