Bomb targets minivans in Baghdad, toll disputed

BAGHDAD, Sep 5 (Reuters) A bomb exploded near minivans in the Iraqi capital Baghdad today, and officials gave sharply differing accounts of casualties.

Local police in the Shi'ite neighbourhood of Sadr City where the bomb exploded said 11 people had been killed and 23 wounded.

But a senior police source in Baghdad put the death toll at one, with 24 wounded. A health official said only 13 people had been wounded.

Reuters television footage showed a very small crater in the ground where the bomb exploded, and little damage to minivans parked nearby.

Police said the bomb exploded at a square where minivans gather to pick up and drop off passengers.

One witness said there had been a number of explosions in Sadr City overnight. It was unclear if the Sadr City neighbourhood police toll was a combined toll from several attacks.

There has been a reduction in violent incidents across Iraq, which US commanders attribute to a troop build-up ordered by US President George W Bush earlier this year.

Sadr City is a stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia of fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Bush, on an unannounced visit to Iraq on Monday, said security had improved in Iraq and raised the prospect of U.S.

troop cuts if the trend continued.

REUTERS CS HS1245