US President George W. Bush said the ousted Iraqi president, held by US forces at an undisclosed location, deserved to die.
The US military said it had stepped up an offensive to isolate and eliminate former members of Saddam Hussein’s government and other cells fighting the occupation forces.
The bomb in Baghdad’s Bayya’a district exploded in a huge ball of fire shortly after dawn, tearing through a packed minibus and several civilian cars, police said.
It was not clear whether the bomb had been in the truck itself, or whether it had gone off at the roadside causing the truck carrying fuel to explode.
One police official said the truck appeared to be aiming for a nearby police station but collided with the minibus, triggering the blast. At least 17 people, mostly passengers, were killed and around 16 were badly burnt in the inferno.
“I was at an intersection and I saw a truck explode in front of me. After that I fainted,” 16-year-old Mutaab Aybee said.
Roadside bombs are a favourite weapon of guerillas who use them to attack US military patrols. Civilians are often caught up in such attacks.
The latest bomb and continued pro-Saddam protests in a number of cities in the “Sunni triangle” are further blows to any hopes that the ousted president’s capture would ease guerilla attacks. Protesters burned the offices of two anti-Saddam political parties in Mosul on Wednesday.
“What can we do. It’s our future. Our future is death,” said 18-year Musalam Abdurida, another victim of Wednesday’s bomb lying in a bloody hospital ward.
SAMARRA OPERATION: North of the capital, American troops, backed by armoured vehicles and attack helicopters, arrested 12 people during a massive raid in the flashpoint city of Samarra, the army said.
“Samarra’s in shock,” said Captain Matthew Cunningham of the Third Brigade, as his men pushed past the city’s golden mosque with four Bradley fighting vehicles. “There is going to be a show of force from now on.”
The city looked desolate and shuttered up, the streets deserted.
The operation to “isolate and eliminate” anti-occupation forces came after a US patrol said it had battled through a “complex ambush”, killing 11 attackers on Monday in the city, 125 kilometres from Baghdad.
Soldiers deployed from their Bradleys to conduct door-to-door searches for people on their wanted list. They used plastic explosives to blow down the front gates of houses in the city starting from 2am.
But they missed the most wanted man in Salaheddin province in a morning raid on a gym where the unidentified target was believed to be lifting weights, a US Army official said.
The occupation forces, however, claimed capturing a key financier of guerilla attacks on Tuesday along with 87 other suspects, and a large quantity of explosives.
Quaiss Hattam was on the blacklist of wanted members of Saddam Hussein’s government , said Captain Gaven Gregory, a US commander.—Reuters/AFP