5 mortars hit Baghdad district, some casualties

Baghdada, Jan 20: Five mortars hit a residential area in northern Baghdad today, killing and wounding several people, a resident and a hospital source said.

''I saw three dead and 25 wounded, some of them seriously,'' said Abu Aliyaa, a resident of the Nuaaman district, a mixed area where both Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs live.

One source at Nuaaman hospital said 17 bodies had been brought to the hospital and 49 wounded, but there was no confirmation of that or whether all the casualties were from the mortar attacks.

Police could not immediately confirm the casualties.

Mortar attacks rarely kill such a large number of people unless they hit a crowded areas such as a restaurant or market.

Reuters