Friday, May 13 2005 08:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: A car bomb explosion in Baghdad yesterday (May 12, 2005) killed at least 15 and wounded more than 80, bringing the death toll from insurgent attacks since the new Iraqi Government took office at the start of the month to well over 400.

Violence continued to overshadow Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari efforts at seizing the political initiative and American hopes of bringing peace to the strife-torn country, with the deaths of four US marines raising to 19 the number of US servicemen killed since Saturday (May 7, 2005).

The total number of US servicemen killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion now stands at 1,609, according to agencies tally based on Pentagon figures.

A suicide bomber killed 15, including them women, and wounded at least 84 in the busy, ethnically mixed eastern Jadida district of the capital, police and hospital sources said.

At least eight cars and a bus were caught in the blast, which blew out windows and storefronts and sent street vendors' stalls flying.

Twisted bodies in ripped clothes were wheeled away on the peddlers' carts by residents as thick black smoke billowed into the sky.

Medics and police extracted charred bodies from the bus. When US forces who arrived after the blast fired warning shots into the air to disperse the crowd, bystanders threw stones at them, witnesses said.